Blundell Harling Drawing Board Deals: Compare Sale Prices & Find the Best Discount UK

Walk into almost any art college, design studio or architecture school in the UK and there’s a good chance you’ll see a Blundell Harling board on a desk. It’s one of those brands that has quietly been part of British drawing for generations, and its history goes back a lot further than most people realise.

The Harling side of the story starts in 1851, when W. H. Harling set up as a maker of drawing instruments at Finsbury Pavement in London, later working from a factory in Hackney. For more than a century the firm made precision instruments, scale rules and T-squares for draughtsmen, engineers and architects. The Blundell side is younger. Blundell Rules began after the Second World War, as a way to keep a wartime machine shop busy, and its first product was a slide rule made in Luton in the late 1940s. In 1956 the company moved to Weymouth in Dorset, and in 1964 it bought the assets of W. H. Harling, creating Blundell Harling. The business has stayed in Weymouth ever since, and it’s still a privately owned British manufacturer, making drawing equipment, boards and scale rules from a single site on the Dorset coast. In an industry where so much is now made overseas, that’s a real comittment to British manufacturing.

For artists and designers, the star of the range is the Challenge drawing board. It has a parallel motion straightedge, which runs on a cross-wire system on the back of the board, so you can draw perfectly straight, parallel lines anywhere on the page. It’s balanced by friction so it moves smoothly and stays where you leave it, and it has graduated markings built in. The fold-out backstand gives you a choice of working flat or at a 15-degree angle, and when it’s folded away it doubles as a carrying handle, so the board folds flat to go in a bag or under a desk. It comes in A3, A2 and A1 sizes, so you can match it to the paper you use most. There’s also a Challenge lightboard version for tracing and transferring drawings.

The rest of the range is very much rooted in technical drawing. Blundell Harling is known for its scale rules, including the Verulam oval and triangular rules used by architects and engineers, along with templates, T-squares and other drawing equipment. For illustration, design, technical drawing and architecture students, it’s a brand that keeps cropping up on the college kit list.

In sixteen years in the art supplies industry, including nearly a decade running digital marketing at ARTdiscount, I’ve seen how steady demand for good drawing boards is, with a big spike every September as students head off to college and university. In our community of 36,000 UK artists at Discount Art Supplies, Blundell Harling boards are often recommended to illustrators, comic artists and anyone who wants a proper, dedicated drawing enviroment at home without buying a full-size drafting table.

Getting the best deal on Blundell Harling comes down to a few things. First, compare prices before you buy. Drawing boards are a bigger purchase, and the price difference between retailers can be significant, so check our comparison above, which is updated in real time. Second, buy the right size. An A2 board is a popular all-rounder for most artists and students, while A1 suits architecture and large-format work, and A3 is the most portable. Third, think about whether you need the lightboard version, which is ideal for tracing and comic work, or whether the standard board will do. And finally, time your purchase. Drawing boards are often discounted around back-to-school in August and September, and again on Black Friday.

A few questions come up regularly. Where are Blundell Harling boards made? Blundell Harling is a British manufacturer based in Weymouth, Dorset, where it has been since the 1950s. What is a parallel motion drawing board? It’s a board with a straightedge that slides up and down while staying perfectly parallel, so you can draw straight, accurate lines anywhere on the paper. What size Blundell Harling board should I buy? A2 is the most popular all-rounder, A1 suits large-format and architectural work, and A3 is the most portable. Can the Challenge board be used at an angle? Yes, the backstand gives you a choice of flat or 15 degrees. Is the Challenge board good for artists? Yes. While it was designed with technical drawing in mind, many illustrators, comic artists and designers use it for its accuracy and convenience.

Blundell Harling is a proper British maker with more than 170 years of history behind it. Looking for a Blundell Harling sale, discount or discount code? Check the price comparisons above, updated in real time, and you’ll always know you’re getting the best current UK price.