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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: David Pike
Date: 2025 Jul 4, 13:46 -0700
Jan Eckert you wrote:
"I saw this Davis metal sextant on ebay. The price seems high for a used sextant, but maybe I would buy it.https://www.ebay.com/itm/156293543541
Jan
You do realise this isn’t even a reproduction, it’s a fictional attempt at a sextant, probably produced by a craftsman in a garage in India.
Try Googling Brass Davis Sextant.
You won’t find one. Look at seller’s other items. He/she has several thousand assorted items also for sale. Moreover, you won’t be able to adjust the index and horizon glasses, because there are no twirly bits to adjust them with. The paperwork in the photographs is genuine, but it doesn't match the sextant shown.
If you want to pay that sort of price for a sextant, try looking at this Hughes Mates 6".
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/197351004395 It’s genuine, it doesn’t have a perfect arc according to Hughes in 1953, but it’s not bad. If I needed one, I’d be willing to pay between £150 to £225 GBP for it. I could even try it first, because it’s only about 70 miles from my home. DaveP






