Ari T Hart's iconic works rebelled against the status quo
He had a world-wide reputation as a man of considerable energy and talent.
Very few reels catch the eye like those of Dutch designer/engineer/artist Ari T Hart.
His reels are unique and represent a high degree of collectability and utility, due in part to top quality engineering and remarkable design work.
A well-known artist in his own right, Ari T Hart’s work wasn’t limited to reels; over the years he had produced tying vises, tying tools, reel seats, tippet dispensers, along with many other fishing (and non-fishing) related items.
The following was written in Ari T Hart’s first product brochure in the beginning 80s:
“The shape of things to come in flyfishing.
‘I am a man of simple taste, only the best will do.’ Oscar Wilde.
Like Mr. Wilde, we have a simple look on life. We want our products simply to be perfect. As perfect as some of those fishing days that stay with you forever. There’s only one way to match that perfection: accept no compromise! So we didn’t. Not in materials and not in functional design.
This is especially apparent in our ATH reels. They include features not found in any other reel. And they perform like no other reel. Every ATH reel is a precision instrument, made to offer you unusual convenience, maximum control and absolute reliability.”
Ari T Hart
An interview of Ari T Hart in Trysil, Norway
Source: YouTube channel of "Trysil", 2009
Oops, it's not easy to put up with the interviewer.
Sorry, just my 2 cents!
Harry Kelly and Patrick Mercy enjoyed a unique opportunity to visit the workshop of and talk with Ari T Hart in 2016
As earlier mentioned it's a shame, but I never met Ari T Hart in person. So, it's not up to me to want to or even be able to characterize Ari's personality. Instead I have translated the following article from Dutch to English:
Source: The magazine "De Vissende Verzamelaar", Clubblad van de Vereniging Hengelsport
Verzamelaars , Nr. 45 / 2016 Ari T Hart (1) and Nr. 47 / 2017 Ari T Hart (2), Harry Kelly and Patrick Mercy enjoyed a unique opportunity to visit the workshop of and talk with Ari T Hart”
Ari was one of the initiators of this Fly Fair. Its five-foot-wide “stand” was probably the busiest of the entire Fly Fair (apart from perhaps the bar later in the day). There were no flickering neon signs hanging from the top of the big white tent: only 3 initials were in the now very famous logo on the backs of the reels in the two display cases: ATH.
And now, many decades later, we find ourselves on a drizzly Saturday afternoon in Ari's attic room in his white bungalow on the outskirts of Oldenzaal. 81 years young, hair still in a ponytail, Ari jumps off the handsome black leather couch, turns and uses the couch as a ladder to grab a non-anodized prototype S2 reel that sits on the top shelf of his “display wall” above the sofa. The S-series and the four reels named after the famous rivers Deschutes, Orbigo, Taupo and Traun mark the beginning of ATH's life's work.
Apart from this there will certainly be about 70 unnamed reels on plates of hardened glass stand. The early types on top, straight from the workshop, over 30 years ago. Then a color spectacle on the glass plates below: various shades of green, blue and purple. A little powder-coated reel in the color of Marilyn Monroe's lipstick. In addition, an opalized gray reel. The technical information reads: 3/5 of the color layer is burned into the material, therefore practically scratch-free, but with a dull look. So: rejected!
On the lower strip the latest unique black and gold anodized mousetrap reels with a ribbed spool and also a ribbed 3 inch wide slip disc. The "earliest" reels left beautiful A4 stainless steel bolts and nuts, but there are no screws on these last reels. How are the parts made in such a very finely tuned reel? Ask Ari and he probably won't tell you. What he does want to reveal is that making such a reel takes two days... Plus 50 years of experience. If ever there was an era when there was a “copy disease” it is the early part of the 21st century. With 3D, CAD-CAM and advanced CNC techniques, the market can be flooded with ATH clones within a few months of a reel being introduced (with innovative specialties of course.) We saw a reel with a slip mechanism through a trade; a reel with a built-in leader dispenser and even a 2 spool reel (in one housing). Two things are clear: Ari still spends much of his time in his workshop. There is another beautiful shiny glass display case filled with reels that have never seen the market and every model that takes it from prototype to a successful finished product is made by Ari in very limited numbers. They are presented in a very nice redwood wooden box with velvet lining. Gone are the days when young Dutch enthusiasts could buy an ATH reel in Henk Peeters' famous fly fishing shop in Amsterdam. Ari now only makes reels for fun, for special occasions, as a gift for a friend or as a birthday present. “I got cataracts in both eyes, new lenses were implanted and my eyes were lasered. I now see better than ever.” We take off our glasses (or put them on) to look closely at the endless details of the reels that glitter in the display cases. He never counted them exactly, but Ari estimates that he has made many hundreds of models.
Ari T Hart's Mousetrap reel
With his refined Delft accent, Ari recalls how a teacher once told him when he placed a piece of metal on the young instrument maker's workbench: “If you cannot fall in love with this piece of metal, you will never be able to make something beautiful out of it." Ari worked for Delft Optical Instruments and made instruments for ITC. He is a certified goldsmith, (he shows us beautiful jewelry and special cut surgical glasses in the third display case of his room). A photo overview shows every reel he has made, photographed with his Hasselblad. One photo on every page of this sizable album. On page 1 his first model from 1959. When he decides to make a series of such a reel, it will be seamless fit on the same latest models which are displayed on the lower shelf. All too often reels are designed and made through a series of steps like those taught in engineering schools. Ari says: “I work in a completely different way, come with me for a moment”. His house was built in 1970 and Ari changed and adapted it when he bought it. A lowered floor area is furnished with tasteful leather sofas that have the shine of decades of use. A glass door not only prevents the cats from going up to the attic - into Ari's study, but also serves as a separation from the lower temperature part of the house. Large, brilliantly colored paintings contrast with the deep black polished granite of the kitchen where we enjoy an espresso with a piece of delicious pastry that his wife Astrid serves us.
Ari T Hart at home
Mirrored walls and African sculptures complete it special character of the interior. On the south side a cactus senkas. Tall, whimsical tree-like cacti reached to the ceiling decades ago and now continue to grow tangled. It may be a coincidence that the way to the workshop runs through this greenhouse. Where the centimeter-long spines try to prick intruders, they are simply covered with black pieces of foam. We arrive at a steel door, go down 2 steps and the doormat already shows splinters and spirals of earlier pieces of metal that were lovingly but firmly worked to fit Ari's ideas. The heavy green and gray cutting machines show a beautiful satin sheen as a result of decades of labour. The floor is made of narrow oak strips. A drawer in a wooden cabinet opens, where all the parts of a dozen new reels are neatly stored; the larger parts carefully packed, all ready to be assembled. In another part of the workshop we find the drawing board. Here the floor is clearly marked by the chair legs. An A1 format working drawing shows two detailed parts of a reel inked in firm strokes. This is the job of an engineer who wants to put on paper what he has in mind. “I don't use a computer for my drawings: there is nothing wrong with the good old school drawings that I learned during my training in the 60s” Ari states that he only makes the drawings after a piece of work has been completed to his satisfaction. “At the end of the day I have this piece in my hand and can sit on the couch for an hour and look at it and judge it. My thoughts, both the artist's and the engineer's, trigger a synthetic process and on day two I continue this process, repeating as necessary. Call it intuitive or primitive, but it works just fine for me. It also explains why there is no system in its reel sizes. They arise as they are at the end of the day. You can use the yardstick mentality, but it is of little significance; construction principles and properties of the material have already been included from experience. An exception to this. Ari shows off a miniature streamside fly-tying kit. It has slides, a magnetic hook holder and velvet lining. It includes a vice, scissors, bobbin holder, hackle plier and even a powerful LED on a folding tripod. The metal box is machined from a block of solid aluminum; measurements: exactly 1 by 2 by 3 inches. It's just a prototype. It still has manufacturing marks on one side and is highly polished on the other, enough to check yourself for stubble at the end of a fishing day. When we are back in the study, Astrid brings us some refreshment. Many reels pass through our hands again; two fall to the ground (intentionally) to demonstrate why the pre-1980 models featured a stainless steel rim that acted like a spring. They protected, but will never break like die-cast aluminum rims do. A picture of a personalized electric fly reel made for a disabled person is taken from the photo album. On the wall is a black and white photograph of a wheelchair designed for the 1980 Paralympics. There is a photograph of former US President George Bush Sr. taking a closer look at a series of ATH reels given as a gift. A slightly blurry photo of Ari on a plane with Jack Hemmingway. A photo of a reel with an engraved message to Joan Wulff, a photo of Stu Apte next to the last known photo of master rod builder Hans Gebetsroither looking at an ATH reel. We also see the prototypes for the Hardy Astrid reel, named after his wife and the Hardy Angel fly reel series that Ari designed for Hardy. We were almost “overtaken”...
Ari T Hart's electric reel
Astrid and Ari T Hart
Then suddenly the dark Danish period comes up for discussion. Stolen blueprints, copies made from inferior materials, poor colors. It happened to him, Ari tells. As an artist who was more concerned with a fresh output of new models, he could not deal enough with keeping drawings in order, organizing patent changes, conducting lawsuits. He chose bankruptcy as a means of survival. Six weeks later, the new company registered. From that moment on, he took matters into his own hands again. Drawings stay in the safe; prototypes are not shown to anyone (we feel very privileged) production and assembly is done by Ari herself. Every certified ATH reel, vice or any other ATH product has a lifetime service and warranty. In a reflective moment, Ari remarks that he may have lived the ultimate fly-fishing life: not just fishing the world's rivers (Ari can prove he pretty much did) but: building, fishing and participating. Like many famous rod builders, he strives to share with others the satisfaction that comes from owning and fishing with a beautiful fly-fishing equipment. A perfect fly fishing equipment draws a person. The aesthetic quality of his reels was noticed right from the start. In the first place by the Dutch and foreign fly fishermen but also, in 1990 by the Museum of Modern Art in New York when Ari was invited to donate a reel to be part of the collection. It is registered under the number 437.1992. In May 2011, Ari was invited to the Gravity Free design conference in San Francisco. There he discoursed on his motto that designing and constructing something as seemingly trivial as a fly-fishing reel is an expression of not merely mechanical ingenuity, but perhaps more of an aesthetic beauty. Sharing that with others is at the heart of what designing is. Many contemporary collectors (and the number seems to be growing) have understood this well. There are 2 examples in the recent past where collectors bought almost 100 reels at once; direct from Ari. Then emphatically display them as works of art in their homes. Auction houses in the UK, especially Neil Freeman, are increasingly presenting ATH reels in their auction range. (April 2016 there were over 40 ATH reels). ATH, a “reel” investment. It's not just for fishing that you own an ATH reel: more and more you also own a work of art. Members of the VHV keep a close eye on developments in the UK, also because few ATH reels are offered in the Netherlands. The UK auctions are currently the place to be for ATH reels. We conclude our interview with a quote from Walton's The Complete Angler. In the 1653 edition, discussing the using a “Wheel” while fishing for salmon, Walton notes: Some use a reel about the middle of their fishing rod, others close to their hand. Just seeing it is better than describing it in a lot of words. Indeed, using many words has its limitations. Shooting is better but the best thing is having some ATH reels on the table, holding them in your hands; that's where collectors go to strive. And: in any case, try to catch big fish; they are a perfect topic for conversation wherever you go and they do exactly what Ari is aiming for: they bring beauty and people together.