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Useful knots
Kite flying is a chore without some decent device to handle the line. In order to fully enjoy flying good kites (seeing how high you can get) and exploit their full potential, decent reels are essential. The necessary kite flying skills can't be developed without being able to let line out with the right amount of drag, or take up slack quickly. Without a well balanced, free-spinning reel you can't let out line fast enough to keep up with a kite that wants to take it out in great chunks, or happens to be in a screaming dive and the only chance to stop it is to shoot out line very, very fast. Nor can you take up slack efficiently enough to maintain control when a kite suddenly falls off a thermal. Avoid like the plague any type of framice that won't spin freely, or is not balanced, or has any kind of "line guide." 
Reels can get to spinning very fast; the knobs will be just a blur. If there isn't a pair of knobs, the reel will be hopelessly out of balance and wobble out of control. It could be downright dangerous. Avoid frame-type winders that when spinning are impossible to apply drag to or to stop without giving you a severe clunk. There are times when the line suddenly stops going out while the reel is still spinning, and such times are when a line guide will just create a huge mess inside the reel. I almost lost the tip of a finger from a line guide. You can't always be watching the reel for loops or other problems, and sometimes you may have to wind line on to a reel manually, which is impossible if there's a line-guide in the way. Murphy's Law applies to reels, and the fewer things that can go wrong the better. The importance of smoothness and free spinning can not be over-emphasized. A poor finish can really take the skin off your hands while braking; some finishes (varnish is one) burn, too. Poor construction can cause any number of problems. Poor balance causes wobbling, poor quality plywood can get bent outward, poor fasteners can come loose, poor workmanship can mean knobs and axles come loose. My brother is a cabinet maker; he made me a lovely reel, but he said there was no way he could make them commercially. All the kite flyers at Kensington Gardens in London, where I got my wings, either made their own reels or got one of the ones made by Gabriel, who knocked them out at home with a coping saw, using a dresser drawer for a workbench.
Deep sky reels have to be well designed and made because they can have so much pressure build up from line tension that they're liable to get crushed, and the sides may bulge outwards at the same time, preventing them from turning.When there's a reasonable pull on the flying line, it stretches a certain percentage, and this stretch builds up a compressive force which can reach up to 8 tons. Light line can be worse for this than heavier line; it might have stretched more, plus there are many more turns of it on a reel. Shown here is an example of what tension build-up can do to plywood.
If one doesn't happen to have access to deep sky reels,
or doesn't want to make them, or doesn't want the extra weight to carry, there
are some pretty good alternatives. I use Hoop Spools whenever I need to travel light, which is pretty often these days, since my backyard flying field was made into a bypass road and the place I fly now is 3/4 of an hour walk away. (Also I discovered last summer that my lowest two spinal vertebrae have a gaseous space where the intervertebral disk used to be.) You can let line out almost as well with these as with a proper reel, but winding in is obviously nothing like as efficient.Nevertheless, you can take in quite a lot with each turn. There is a warning: if you allow tension to build up on one of these, it can crack in two. The rule is to take up the tension with your arm, and not transfer it to the spool.
Similar to the Hoop Spools are the Shantitm Yo-Yo spools. They are asymmetrical; one side flange slants outwards which allows line to spin off if you lie them down flat or turn them sideways. They look pretty strong, too. I like using them.
Several flyers I know like using the Shantitm Windbreaker winder (see in the Catalog).
There is only one deep sky reel I know of available today for sale from a shop. It's called the "8 inch Deep Sky Reel" and it's available from Into the Wind, in Boulder, Colorado. This reel looks balanced. (I have only seen the picture in the catalog; the only thing I'd change on it would be to smooth off the nuts holding the knobs on, or they'll skin knuckles for sure.)
Make sure there is a pair of winding knobs on any reel; without a pair, a reel will wobble uncontrollably when a kite is taking line out fast. Another thing to watch out for on a deep sky reel is that there is no gap between the fixed part and the rotating part for the line to sneak down in to when you least expect it. Gabriel went to a lot of trouble to make an extra piece of thin ply to cover this gap, and there is good reason why. Some commercial reels are sold with no covering whatsoever over the axle, and it only takes once over the side to grind a weak spot in the line. Also, avoid reels made with a curved core or hub, as these are just guaranteed to cause birds' nests and line jams.
In an emergency it might be necessary to drop the reel suddenly, so avoid any contraption that's somehow attached to your person in such a way that it can't be dropped quickly. In the photo here the straps on both reels are closed with quick-release velcro.
There are a few practical things it's good to know about deep sky reels before taking one out into the field for the first time. In fact, if you've bought one with a bicycle hub as a core it may be advisable to disassemble it and put it back together again, because inside it there are cones that may need adjusting and locking nuts that might need tightening and/or repositioning. The gap between the hand plate and the spool mustn't be too close, or the spool might catch on the hand plate as it turns; the gap mustn't be too big, or the line might get wound around the axle. I have found that large diameter washers help make the hand plate more rigid on the axle. Back in "the old days" at the Round Pond I learned through bitter experience to always bring along a wrench or spanner the right size for my reels. (Curiously, since then I've not had a single problem with any of my reels!)
I remove all line guides from reels. I almost lost a finger to one once. There are times when you want to give the reel a good spin, and the guides just get in the way. Also, there may be times when it's necessary to wind the line on by hand. Guides are a nuisance when the reel has been spinning fast and the kite suddenly stops taking out line. The reel keeps on spinning with its own inertia, which allows huge loose loops of line to form, inevitably jamming the reel with a sudden crump. The best way to avoid birds' nests on reels is by judiciously winding the line on evenly with a back and forth motion that can be done without looking.
Maurice Sawyer, a kite flyer retired from the timber industry, designed some smooth running wooden deep sky reels with no ball bearings at all. The hub is built around industrial nylon bearing material. Spools can be quickly switched on the hand plate by the removal of a single circlip. These reels are exquisitely smooth, and I am lucky to have one. Maurice only made a small number of them.
In the falconry section, there is a nylon spool which may soon be made in a hand-held version, for regular kite flyers. This reel runs on roller blade bearings, which never need adjusting - which is to say they'll never come loose when you're using the reel.
Regardless of what reels or winders you use, or what kind of line, bear in mind they won't be any stronger than the weakest links - the knots. It pays to do some digging to find and learn a few good, handy knots. Fishermen have an arsenal of favorite knots, but for the rest of us a good little knot book is a most useful reference. Be sure to use one that indicates the relative strengths of the various knots, and look for knots between 90 or 95 and 100% efficiency. Many common knots actually weaken the line by as much as 50% or more. Kite lines eventually develop weak spots; always be on the lookout for signs of wear or damage: frayed fibers, pronounced kinks and surface abrasion. Along the line's length, these can be cut out and repaired very quickly in the field with a Blood Knot or Double Grinner, while worn lengths at the ends can be periodically chopped out, and the swivels re-tied.
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