Unknown maker, date, country – pretty much everything!
"Assume nothing" is my usual mantra when buying off ebay, but occasionally I still make assumptions that turn out to be completely wrong. On this occasion I thought I knew…
Superbow Sunday 2025
Superbow Sunday is here again, and if there is one thing people like more than the event itself, it's the commercials. So what better way to celebrate the day than…
Three Brunel compasses
At long last I got around to photographing my motley crew of three cased Brunel compasses, primarily to compare details with another example of the type recently acquired by David Riches. I…
Ogle’s aphemetric compass: a mystery solved
A huge thanks to Robert Pilla of the Drawing Instruments group for helping me solve the mystery of my Elliott Bros dial dividers posted back in January. His reference to…
Superbow Sunday
I heard it on the grapevine that today the USA celebrates "Superbow Sunday", apparently an annual national event of great importance - and who am I to argue with that?…
Rotring’s eccentric Centro
In the same vein as Staedtler's Galileo, the 1990s also saw Rotring trying to reinvent the compass, in particular the spindle-adjustment master bow. The resulting design is unusual not only in…
Mechanical Pencil Month – Day 14: Compass inserts
As mentioned in day twelve's survey of lead refills, A.W. Faber's polygrade leads revolutionised the compass pencil insert, with 2 mm quickly becoming the standard size of fitting. Mostly these…
Class of the Titans
A recent discussion about instruments named after mythological figures brought to mind the "Titan" Combination Compass, a simple design that aimed to provide a full drawing set in a box.…
Plumbago, Canada!
Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends! This year to mark the occasion I decided to dig deep - beyond the ubiquitous Schoenner and Eichmüller wallets, past my lovely…
Rotring Techniker-Zirkel II: Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the drawing board
The name Rotring will forever be synonymous with the tubular technical pens on which their business was built, so it easy to forget that they were also highly regarded for…