Measurement system - Metric/Imperial?

[Pavel]

Hello, I'm brand new to this forum as well as to my interest in things leather-working related.  At this stage I'm reading a bit of every topic just to get my bearings, and soon will start to look into ordering some books and perhaps a few basic hand tools.  I have a quick question about the hobby or trade of leather-working; and that is to find out what is the predominant way of measuring?  Do we use metric or those infernal fractions - the imperial system?  Or is it a personal choice?  I landed here by serendipitous chance, when I decided that I needed a new hobby, and randomly chose sewing. In exploring the world of sewing I found that there were probably aspects of it that would limit my interests to a few niche areas due to my dislike of certain details. I don't for instance like quilting nor clothing - and that seems to be about 90% of the sewing community focus. ( Fortunately I have a lot in interest in hammocking and hammock making - so likely, it's not a complete misdirection ) But one of the things that struck me as odd was that the whole sewing universe seems stuck in the imperial swamp of inefficient measurement taking.  My brain says - c'mon man, don't do that to me! :D

Seeing that rulers are available in both systems - how does the field of leather-working tend to operate? Any guidance and words to save me grief? 

[Dwight]

I think you will find that the majority of us on here are into inches, feet, yards, etc.

FYI, leather is typically measured in ounces, . . . and usually addressed in the format x/y ounces:  for example 4/5 means at least 4 ounces in thickness, . . . but not over 5 ounces.  Ounces are each 1/64 of an inch.  Therefore, . . . a piece of leather that is exactly 8 ounces in thickness would be 8/64" or 1/8 of an inch.  

A few from Au, . . . UK, . . . Sweden, . . . etc. seem to be entombed in the mack-rack or M&M ideology.

Can't be too hard on em though, . . . that is what they learned growing up, . . . and sometimes it is hard to change.  

Fortunately, . . . I can relate most of their posts to 7.62 mm or 5.56 mm as I just happen to be well versed in those two measurements.  If I were not, . . . I'd have to google their mm measurements every time.

May God bless,

Dwight

Edited September 27, 2016 by northmount
Changed 12 oz to 8 to match description

[JLSleather]

When purchasing leather in the U.S., you'll be billed by teh square foot (not the square meter) for leather which is gauged by the "ounce" (not the mm).  Beyond that, I don't know if it matters.

[fivewayswelshcobs]

I agree many of us this side of the pond do have a very confused system, we measure thickness in mm but still work in imperial for other measurements some buckles are now coming in metric but since the straps are 1/2" 5/8" etc I still ask for them in imperial.

In other areas I still cook using ounces, pounds etc, the fields are measured in acres but officially in paperwork they are measured in hectares ( who on earth can visualise a hectare ie 2.471 acres) . When we started farming livestock were in cwt  now in kilos so we often spend most of the time translating measurements. It must be fun for youngsters trying make sense of all this as some do not understand imperial measurements at all unfortunately this makes me sound old and grumpy but no just grumpy and not so old. I also tell customers I still work in English ie feet and inches.

[Pavel]

Thanks all.  I was mostly curious how when we draw out a pattern to leather ... if we use fractions or mm. Should I get a ruler in metric, or inches? 

[Northmount]

42 minutes ago, Pavel said:

Thanks all.  I was mostly curious how when we draw out a pattern to leather ... if we use fractions or mm. Should I get a ruler in metric, or inches? 

Get both rules, saves time.  Else convert to your preferred units and mark up your patterns to suit.  Many of my patterns have no measurements, just full size, lay it out, mark around it and cut!

Tom

[TinkerTailor]

I tend to switch back and forth. I was brought up imperial on a farm but used metric in school. I use imperial most of the time but when math comes in, i sometimes switch. Say you are trying to make a fringe with 4 strips out of a 4 inch piece of leather, It is going to be 3 cuts. That works out to 1.33 of an inch. Find a ruler with that number on it. Yes, you can work out the nearest fraction but this is another step.  In metric, 100mm(4") divided by 3 is 33.3mm.  This is easy to find on a metric ruler.

When dealing with feet and inches, division and multiplication gets even harder. This is why machinists work in thousandths of an inch and not fractions.

For rough estimates 1"=25mm and 1 foot = 300mm

Also, chevy fans out there, a pound is 454 grams.

A kilo is 2.2 pounds. A quart of milk is about a kilo.

[Northmount]

And a quart of milk is about one litre.

Tom

[Olle P]

Being located in Europe it's a must to handle both the US Imperial (not to be confused with the slightly different British Imperial) and the SI systems interchangeably.

A lot of the litterature is written in USA, using imp, while European retailers often provide product information in SI units.

What seems like the only globally adopted standard is to sell leather by square feet when sold by size.

[LumpenDoodle2]

I prefer using metric, as it makes most sense to me (10 fingers, 10 toes), and reading this forum is a bit confusing re the US oz.   I have a printed out conversion card stuck on my workshop wall to work out what 3oz leather is in real money (as we say here in Scotland).

The leather suppliers I use measure leather thickness in metric, but hide size in imperial.

Saying that, I find myself constantly swopping from imperial to metric and back, even while measuring the same piece of leather.    It's just second nature to translate back and forth for me.

I have noticed that most UK customers (especially English) order belts in inches, and European customers in metric.    

Edited September 28, 2016 by LumpenDoodle2