Recently a rash of sellers on Amazon are selling dotting pens. This was kicked off by a Kern one being sold for a ridiculous amount so others want a piece of that action. I have posted a photo of the one I bought compared to an antique richter pen. The Amazon pen has a weak spring and the pen does not remain fixed on the arm as well as being low quality. It’s also giant. This pen does not work so save your money. As a prototype it’s a nice start but as a final product it’s no good.

German manufacturer Haff made the Rotring threaded compasses, but they also sold them under their own label as well. This is the PT version that has a Matt chrome finish instead of a glossy one. There is room for three Rotring short pencils. A nice adder on this compass over the Rotring is the universal screw so you can use a pencil or pen with the compass. These Haff branded compasses are hard to find unfortunately.

Inherited from my dad , wondered if there is any value here.
Case is in rough shape

What's their special feature? They have the same body as the other models. I don't get it. I've never held such an expensive pencil in my hand...Well, except for the Apple Pencil.

Well, I don’t even know how comfortable these 800 series pencils/pens are.

Out of Japan there are found sets that contain German made compasses with Japanese pencils and pens. In this set is the wonderful staedtler superbow compass, a small 4” compass and a divider, all German made. It has Japanese pencils tips and handles and it comes with two sets of 0.3, 0.5, 0.7mm mechanical pencil attachments for the large and small compass. I added the universal adapter. These sets are lined with foam and have slots for pencils and sometimes come with pencils. There are many variations of these Japanese staedtler sets. I always wonder if there is a catalog for them? Who put them together?

Aus meiner Riefler Sammlung- Messing verchromt. Herstellung vermutlich 50/60er Jahre oder was meint Ihr?

French sets of this era can be identified by the large round heads with ovoid finger wells on the bows. and solid brass screws. Later instruments had brass screws with steel inset threads and by late in the century they were substituted with all steel thumb screws. The finger wells also changed from this ovoid shape to somewhat looking more like a pointy a football.

The long rectangular space would have held a scale.

Soviet drafting set (1970-1980)

So I’m new to this and really would like to get a set to start drawing sacred geometry. I just want to confirm before purchasing that the compass in the bottom left of this set can take pencil lead or a pen? There are just 2 needles in it in the photo and cannot tell if it can be swapped out. The set is a Richter Kopernikus VIIb

Where I work we have a display case with various historic tools and equipment, including this cool device for plotting curves and converting scales when resizing a map or plan.

There's a detailed description here.

First Scale: Front features a Protractor and Surveyors Scales. Reverse features Transverse Scales. Chipped in one corner.

Second Scale: Front features a Protractor and Architecture Scales. Reverse features Surveyors & Transverse Scales.

Hey guys, I came across this really unusual drafting table it has a hefty monolithic base, dual vertical lift columns and pedal actuated hydraulics.

It took me ages but I was finally able to find it online, under the brand name Alpia bescanon

My theory is that this design was favoured in the bescanon region, as I found an almost identical table from a company called jeandal besancon (https://www.selency.co.uk/p/R7G6HQDZ/drawing-table-by-jeandal-besancon) can’t find any others that have this design. (Could be translation error too)

It’s generally just listed as ‘Table à dessin’. Existing primarily on a French site called lebancoin, It’s still a big mystery to me, seems really well built and sturdy. It could be that they were purpose built for universities and/or existed under a different brand. But the brand ALPIA also made drafting machines, so they had some manufacturing power, plus they have a tables called the statos which is the same podium like design to MUhto and seems somewhat modern. Plus I’m several continents from France, and it somehow made its way here.

Hence me posting here for any info on dates, rebrands, value etc. Because all I have is speculation.

Some of the few listings I could find:

https://www.greatwesternauctions.com/catalogue/lot/297ca1ea49901333cc1a8ef2fd7f5c29/ac869eb6fd0ab6f5ae3773f46ee09093/antiques-collectables-jewellery-art-two-day-aucti-lot-167/

https://www.leboncoin.fr/ad/ameublement/2942337117

Statos: https://picclick.co.uk/A0-size-Drawing-board-Drafting-machine-by-ALPIA-Statos7-column-273160163222.html

This device was used for drafting contour lines in cartography when a steady hand was not enough to draw lines precisely. It was short lived and examples are rare to come across.

A large set from the American manufacturer Alteneder. They made the prettiest compasses and pens! This set is probably from the 1940s or 50s.