There was a time when I insisted I was going to grow up and would buy no more department-store furniture that comes in a box. I would only buy “real” furniture made by craftsmen from a company like Broyhill or Thomasville.

So much for that.

A few weeks ago, I took delivery of and assembled a couch that came in a box — five boxes, act­ually — from Ikea. It looks cool, it’s comfortable to sit and lie on and it was easy to put together.

I was impressed with that Swedish engineering.

I bring this up because another innovative example of Swedish engineering has come to my attention: a fly reel with no spindle and handles on both sides.

The Psaros II reel’s highly unusual design “eliminates the need for a center axle, thus endowing the reel with a remarkably large arbor,” a Psaros Flyfishing news release said. “The benefits include drast­ically reduced weight, minimized start-up inertia, the elimination of line coil, a greatly increased rate of retrieval, and maximum backing capacity.”

And, I suppose, everybody gawking at your reel and making jokes about dunking it in coffee.

The spool of the Psaros II looks pretty much like a normal fly reel spool, with the glaring exception of having a handle sticking out of each side. The spool is held inside a cage around its circumference, which swings open like a handcuff to permit changing to a spool with a different kind of line.

Having handles on both sides intrigues me. Like most anglers, I cast with my right hand and reel with my left. Some do it the old-fashioned way: cast right-handed, but switch the rod to the other hand and reel right-handed when you get a fish on. I don’t care for the idea of

switching the rod from one hand to the other at a crucial time; however, the couple of times I’ve handled a reel set up for right-hand retrieve, I’ve been able to turn the handle far more smoothly and steadily with my dominant hand. (Of course, practically all fly reels have claimed in their advertising to be convertible, but I don’t know anyone who’s ever done it. You buy it set up the way you plan to fish it.)

The Psaros II lets you have it both ways. Catch an average-sized fish, reel it in with your left hand; catch a big hot rainbow or a hog brown, reel more deftly with your right.

But the Psaros has what many will consider a very significant drawback: no drag of any kind. The only way to apply the brakes is through a variation of “palming” the reel: You actually hold a finger or thumb against the bearings, which are mounted in the cage and which are exposed for this purpose.

Psaros Flyfishing doesn’t claim there is any advantage to this system, only that it’s easy to use. But several observers have pointed out that exposed bearings seem highly vulnerable to dirt and grit.

And there is one other major drawback: the price, $495, which is almost how much I paid for the couch.

There’s apparently only one model, designed to accom­modate fly lines in sizes 5 through 8. It weighs 5.4 ounces, and holds 160 yards of backing with a No. 7 weight-forward line.

The Psaros II is very handsome, and appears to be well made. If the lack of drag and exposed bearings don’t prove to be fatal flaws, it might be a nice piece of tackle. Have a look at psarosflyfishing.com.