Measurement system - Metric/Imperial?

[Pavel]

well, two set of rulers it is then.  And fingers crossed that the imperial ones can gather dust. 

I was born in Europe and started counting everything like I could my toes. Then off to Canada .. and confusion.  Just as I got the hang of it, sort of, we enlightened ourselves and went to Metric. Then I moved myself to the US and back to that system where the mistakes are easy.   Well it seems that I've been well trained for leather-working. 

[Dwight]

9 hours ago, Pavel said:

well, two set of rulers it is then.  And fingers crossed that the imperial ones can gather dust. 

I was born in Europe and started counting everything like I could my toes. Then off to Canada .. and confusion.  Just as I got the hang of it, sort of, we enlightened ourselves and went to Metric. Then I moved myself to the US and back to that system where the mistakes are easy.   Well it seems that I've been well trained for leather-working. 

Many of us are in the same boat:  grew up in the US, . . . I can measure almost anything we commonly use or work with because I know dimensions of my fingers, . . . the span of my hand, . . . the span of my arms, . . . the length of my step, . . . etc.

Off to the far East for several years in the US Navy, . . . got introduced to metric, . . . about the time I got comfortable (sort of) I'm back in the US.

Later, . . . the US has an extra curricular affair with metric, . . . didn't go well, . . . but foreign cars and tools we buy are metric, . . . so like you said Pavel, . . . two rulers.

In my shop I have three tool boxes for wrenches.  One devoted to metric, . . . one to normal, . . . and one that houses tools that don't care.

Just a fact of this "modern", . . . global economy world we live in.

May God bless,

Dwight

[TinkerTailor]

On 9/28/2016 at 0:41 PM, HENDREFORGAN said:

There are two distinct lines of discussion here, one the question that is there a universal, call it international, standard for quantifying the leather trade and two how simply crossing a countries borders can change this entirely.

All things leather will, hopefully, hang onto it's unique position as a way of life that refuses to be digitized.  The animals that provide the hides and the workers who remove them to continue on into the tanning process do not come in neat increments so it's not unreasonable that the trade should hold onto traditional terms.  However things are changing as our world gets smaller.  Both of the two suppliers I use, Abbey England and Metropolitan Leather, have long since dropped their use of "weight to measure thickness" and ALL their products are shown in millimetres . . yet they also give guide sizes for the hides in feet, inches and square feet.  I suspect they, and others, made that chioce as in the worldwide trade of leather by far the most use the metric system.

May your cuts always be as you want them to be no matter whatever language you use and your straight-edges always be straight no matter what measurements are on the side of the ruler your using.

I printed off a chart that has Ounces/Irons/Inches/Millimeters/decimal inch and it is prominently on the wall of my shop for quick reference. They are all over the internet.  For measuring skins and other materials, I have a 0-1" Starrett #230 machinists micrometer.  I will bring it into the store as well.  If  am not near the conversion chart, It has a decimal to fractional conversion chart etched into it (although I admit I have most decimals to fractions memorized and don't use it much)      All I have to remember is 1/16 inch=1.6mm=4 ounce. If I do it this way, I can switch between units really fast. Like saying to tandy the leather seller, sorry that skin actually measures out to just over 4 oz, nowhere near the 5-6 advertised

Being in Canada we desperately want to be metric, but those pesky yankees have to use their inches and pounds. It doesn't help that the entire prairies was gridded out on a 1 mile grid, making every back road placed on even miles, or the odd half. "How far is jacks place?" " Well lets see, there are 3 roads, then they skip one, then there is the access road to the old smith place, and Jacks place is next. So 4'n'half miles."

Then you get to the highway and it is 100kms/hr and 21kms to town.......

 

[stelmackr]

When I lived in England I went to a wood store and pleased to purchase 2" x 4" by the meter and the 2by4's were finished undersized like ours in the US. ;-)

Bob Stelmack

[TinkerTailor]

How many hands tall is that horse you got again? He eats how many bushels a week? He sure tears up the first 4 furlongs, but lags the last 4.........

[gary]

4 hours ago, stelmackr said:

When I lived in England I went to a wood store and pleased to purchase 2" x 4" by the meter and the 2by4's were finished undersized like ours in the US. ;-)

Bob Stelmack

Similar thing happened to me a couple of years ago.  Went to buy 2 x 4s - had to ask for 50x100s (even though they are really 51 x 102) 'cos that's how they size them now.  When they were delivered they were undersized.  Queried that and I was told "...they are CLS".  ?   "Canadian Lumber Standard".  He couldn't explain it but it appears to mean that maximum size is 2x4 and they can be a fair bit smaller.

4 hours ago, TinkerTailor said:

How many hands tall is that horse you got again? He eats how many bushels a week? He sure tears up the first 4 furlongs, but lags the last 4.........

And you can't get a cord of wood now.  Seems the standard sizes are 'Small Trailer', 'Big Trailer' and 'Back of the Lorry Full'.

 

[LumpenDoodle2]

56 minutes ago, gary said:

Similar thing happened to me a couple of years ago.  Went to buy 2 x 4s - had to ask for 50x100s (even though they are really 51 x 102) 'cos that's how they size them now.  When they were delivered they were undersized.  Queried that and I was told "...they are CLS".  ?   "Canadian Lumber Standard".  He couldn't explain it but it appears to mean that maximum size is 2x4 and they can be a fair bit smaller.

And you can't get a cord of wood now.  Seems the standard sizes are 'Small Trailer', 'Big Trailer' and 'Back of the Lorry Full'.

 

Is that 'fell off back of' Lorry Full :-)

[Mattsbagger]

Just started with leather but I have come to embrace the metric system for measuring. It's much more precise for me. Still not sure what a hectare is in relation to an acre though.lol

[HENDREFORGAN]

16 hours ago, stelmackr said:

When I lived in England I went to a wood store and pleased to purchase 2" x 4" by the meter and the 2by4's were finished undersized like ours in the US. ;-)

Bob Stelmack

Oh that's the way it's sold but there is a logic to their sizing madness. 

Timber (lumber) is "rough cut" first to exact sizes and this is where you can buy a nicely accurate "two by four" . . but if you want smooth timber (lumber) then it needs to be planned.  Here in the UK it's then called "planned all round" or "PAR".  They don't take much off, the original cutting is often very accurate, but you will lose between 2mm to 3mm per side . . hence you end up with that smaller size.

Thing is not only is PAR priced to reflect both the cost of the original sized timber and the planning process but most lumber yards will extract the sawdust and then sell that to other customers bagged up . . . that's not nice!  Theft! 

[zuludog]

I think that Liberia and Myanmar (Burma) have now officially adopted the metric system