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…
Höhnig’s square triangle
Interesting European drawing instruments have been a bit thin on the ground here in the UK over the last couple of years, but occasionally something unexpected still turns up. In…
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…
Tangram alphabet
Thanks to a comment on the previous post by Erick, my attention was drawn to the instruction booklet that accompanied Dr Richter's Anchor Puzzle. This puzzle was essentially a repackaged…
Mechanical Pencil Month – Day 19: I’m dreaming of a white…
…pencil? Clearly in the mid-1980s this is precisely what people were dreaming of, judging by the sheer number of white fineliner sets around at the time. Rotring, Staedtler and Faber-Castell…
Mechanical Pencil Month – Day 18: Rotring multi-pencils
One type of sliding pencil that did not get a mention in yesterday's entry was the multi-colour everpointed type, made by Sampson Mordan among others. These particular models always appear…
Mechanical Pencil Month – Day 17: Slide rules, OK?
Another Slide Rule Saturday rolls around (whatever happened to the last one?) and having already used up my only slide rule pencil as well as my only pencil with slide…
Mechanical Pencil Month – Day 16: Cone v. Cylinder
Over the last few days, the question of point shape has come up more than once. There was the Staedtler REG with its throwback conical point in an age of…
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…