My uncle has an old Cortland 444 Ltd. Reel that has a lot of sentimental value to him. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been maintained in quite some time.

I’d like to clean it up for him, and I was planning on a similar method as in this thread on cleaning a Medalist. I used it a few years ago to get a 1494 in much better shape. I have Hot Sauce oil and grease on hand. It may also need other work, but unless that is fairly straightforward, I don’t plan on anything more than a thorough cleaning.

Are there any problems taking that route? Any other issues I should be aware of? Here are some pictures of the reel.

Thanks in advance.

I hope that Bulldog chimes in. His method works great, very similar to mine with older traditional reels. I do have one caveat with your reel. I’m not sure I’d be confident with the use of acid with decals. I’d probably go with a weak soap solution instead but Bulldog might be able to dispell that concern. Either way, I think you would do well to rinse with distilled or RO water afterword, followed by drying and lubrication to prevent corrosion later on.

Thanks. I’ll post pictures when I get it cleaned up.

good job

One of my Cortland mulitpliers was binding a few months ago, when I got home and looked at it.............yup, spindle loose!

Great old reels