Heat can't escape as easily because it's contained inside the hub, and the small drag washer just isn't efficient because it has so little surface area. Ted Juracsik, Sr. You hadn't taken it apart in 10 years and had caught tons of big fish on it. All I did was clean off and replace the dirty drag lubricant. The drag was still perfect because it was made from cork.
Nothing yet beats cork.
Heat and start-up inertia are the two greatest enemies of fly reel drags. Lots of materials resist heat but don't provide low start-up throughout a broad range of settings. Cork does both very well. I'm talking about fairly large, stamped-out sheet cork disks, glued to a gear to which the spool is pressed against. Cork resists heat and compresses, which is why is it so smooth with less start-up inertia.