AWG or SWG in the Jewellery Industry?

[handmadeblanks]

What standard is used in the jewellery industry, SWG or AWG? Or does it depend on where you are in the world? In the description of certain products on Cooksongold they refer to 'gauge', would this be SWG or AWG?

Thanks in advance!

[Dennis]

Rightly or wrongly, I've always referred to this chart. Seems to work alright, but imperial measurements are a thorough nuisance. Dennis.

[ps_bond]

I tend to assume gauge refers to B&S gauge rather than AWG/SWG. However, as B&S is as helpful and as sensible a measurement system as Farenheit, it varies according to what metal is being described.

[CJ57]

Well just to be helpful I still have to compare mm thickness to BMG which is what I knew and Cookson used to helpfully provide a table but don't think they do now as they probably think we've all died! James helpfully posts it for me and then I forget to save it so I just guess. Then it becomes complicated as the lower the BMG the thinner the metal and the lower the American the thicker:/

[Goldsmith]

Well just to be helpful I still have to compare mm thickness to BMG which is what I knew and Cookson used to helpfully provide a table but don't think they do now as they probably think we've all died! James helpfully posts it for me and then I forget to save it so I just guess. Then it becomes complicated as the lower the BMG the thinner the metal and the lower the American the thicker:/

Here are some old metal size charts Dennis added the AWG chart so here are the BMG and SWG charts Caroline.

10787 10789

James

[Goldsmith]

When I was working in the trade in 1961, for my first 14 years in the workshop we used BMG sizes for metal sizes. When I changed employment in 1975 and moved to a new workshop we used imperial micrometers to size metals and in later years we moved on to metric measurements, which is what I have used for the past 30 years, although I sometimes used an imperial micrometer for sizing jobs.

James

[ps_bond]

I use Imperial a fair bit, but I find metric much easier. Mostly my issue with Imperial is flipping back & forth between fractional inches & thous.

[CJ57]

Thanks James, I've bookmarked them now although I'm probably buying what I need now rather than the thicknesses we seemed to use at college as the norm.
I inherited a couple of lovely micrometers which live in the cupboard as I've never been able to work out how to read them. It's such a waste, maybe I should sell them but they are probably imperial

[china]

Have a look here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StBc56ZifMs explains how to read a metric micrometer, there are other tutorials to explain imperial, can be hard to get the hang of it at first, but then something just clicks and you wonder why it was so difficult, of course in these modern times you can buy digital micrometers and you don't need think it does it all for you. All you need is a spare battery because they only seem to go flat when you want to use it

[CJ57]

Yes I now have a digital but I've always felt defeated by not mastering the proper one. They were given to me by a precision machinest along with the rest of his tools and he definitely wouldn't have had the patience to try and teach me again. With the dept having Hugh its own very experienced technician I realise that we were really spoilt and you took for granted that the tools were clean and the surfaces blemish free!

[handmadeblanks]

Yes I now have a digital but I've always felt defeated by not mastering the proper one. They were given to me by a precision machinest along with the rest of his tools and he definitely wouldn't have had the patience to try and teach me again. With the dept having Hugh its own very experienced technician I realise that we were really spoilt and you took for granted that the tools were clean and the surfaces blemish free!

I roll my own sheet so I would be lost without my Vernier caliper, it's an old school non-digital one which I prefer. Once you understand the Vernier system it really is a cinch to use them or a micrometer.

This Wiki page gives a nice clear explanation of the Vernier scale with excellent animations to help. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernier_scale

[ps_bond]

Once you understand the Vernier system it really is a cinch to use them or a micrometer.

Or a target rifle sight - which is where I first learned Verniers.