Removing hard silk from nickle plated reel

[NewUtahCaneAngler]

Hello all,

I recently acquired an early nickle plated skeleton reel that has hardened silk line in one solid mass on the spool. I'd like to remove this.

Can I soak the the spool in a baking soda slurry to hopefully soften the line enough to allow removal without damaging the nickle plating?

Any other ideas To soften the line?

Thanks in advance!
Cheers,
Joe

[MGrallert]

I would think you could soak it in a thinned linseed oil bath for a few days.

[kevinhaney1]

I just cut it off with an X-Acto knife.

[NewUtahCaneAngler]

I just cut it off with an X-Acto knife.

Forgot that I had one, but that did the number. Thank you.

Cheers,
Joe

[jeffkn1]

By the time silk line reaches that stage there's no point in trying to salvage it. Even if you soften it to the point where you can start uncoiling it from the reel, my experience has been that the rot that infects the silk has not done so in a uniform pattern. After soaking to where you can begin to pull some off, it will come off maybe 5 or ten coils then it will snap. Find the end to begin again and snap. Eventually you get the message when you've got a bench covered with odd useless lengths of fly line. That's when you get out the knife that would have saved all the other efforts.