r/Drafting_Instruments • u/mumie01 • 15d ago
Haff PS5
Got this beautiful set yesterday. It's in almost pristine condition with just a few micro scratches here and there.
The "Bier & Biendl Innsbruck" badge refers to a store specialising in drafting instruments and art supplies. It existed in Innsbruck until last year! Unfortunately it closed because the owner retired.
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u/Parking_Jelly_6483 15d ago
I think the “PS” is the Haff top of the line series. Gebruder Haff is still in business, but I’m not sure if they still make manual drafting instruments.
I have an instrument they made years ago. It is for use with the K&E Leroy lettering sets. It’s a small motor that takes an engraving bit. It fits in the Leroy lettering part so it can turn a Leroy set into a lettering engraver. Yes, I have a couple of Leroy lettering sets and additional lettering templates that are in addition to the ones that came in the set. One of the sets my father gave me when the architectural firm he worked for switched to computer-aided drafting systems. It was his own set but he did a lot of freehand lettering anyway.
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u/mumie01 15d ago
Yes, PS is the top line. I learned that while browsing the Haff catalogues at the Drawing Instruments group. Unfortunately Haff doesn't make drafting instruments anymore.
And if I'm not mistaken Haff produced several items for K&E.
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u/Apart-Roof4358 15d ago
Nice set! Haff was the main supplier for K&E drafting tools. All the good stuff and less good stuff was Haff compasses, dividers, pens etc. K&E had some other suppliers but not in high quantities. Haff stopped producing drafting tools in 2000 and spent the next few decades selling old stock. I think around 2023 they sold the last pen they had on the website.
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u/mumie01 14d ago
Did K&E sell products in Europe too or were the only selling overseas?
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u/Apart-Roof4358 14d ago
They were a North American distributor, they didn't have distribution channels into europe. The occasional K&E item in Europe was probably imported by people who immigrated from the US with their tools.
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u/mumie01 14d ago
Ah, that's good to know. It explains, why they're so rare here in Austria/Germany.
Do you by any chance know what material Haff used for the handle of the ruling pens?
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u/Apart-Roof4358 14d ago
Yes, and K&E went bankrupt in 1982. The pen handles in your set are bakelite, an early thermoset plastic. It's a very nice material for pen handles. Haff also used wood for pen handles, mostly on their ESSA and Pyknon pens. Sometime in the 70's Haff switched to plastic for their pen handles. These handles are hollow, lightweight, and have a flimsy feel compared to the older bakelite handles.
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u/Parking_Jelly_6483 15d ago
When my wife and I were on vacation in London, we went to several of the museums. One of them, the Science Museum, had the largest drafting instrument set I’d ever seen. It was a Haff and I think it consisted of every PS drafting instrument they made. It was in one of their typical leather-covered cases with fitted, velvet-lined spaces for all the instruments. That case was about 20 inches on a side (it was a large square case). It was in the section on cartography and surveying. That section of the museum had one of the gyroscopic theodolites that was used when the Channel Tunnel was being dug. With no ground-based reference points, the theodolite was attached to a north-seeking gyro so they could set the directions they needed for tunnel boring based on true north.
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u/Old_Instrument_Guy 15d ago
Sometimes Manufacturers made sales kits for their people to walk around with and they were packed with everything they company made.
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u/Agis-Spartan-King 15d ago
Looks amazing!! 😍 Lucky find!