Using a Wire Gauge Jewelry Making Technique

Using a wire gauge to measure the thickness of your jewelry wire is relative easy.  Our wire gauge, item 3434 is shown at right and in a close-up at left.  The gauge has a series of holes, connected by notches or grooves cut between the hole to the edge of the gauge.  Each hole is labeled with the thickness of the associated groove in decimal inches, in American Wire Gauge (AWG), and in mm.  The top number shown is the thickness in inches.  The middle number is the AWG size of the groove and the bottom number is the thickness of the grove in mm. 

To measure the diameter of a segment of wire, the important part of the gauge is the groove cut in the wire gauge between the outside of the gauge and the hole.  Please note that the size of the hole is not important.  The sole function of the hole is to make it easy to remove the wire from the gauge after it has passed through the groove cut in the edge of the wire gauge.  To measure any segment of wire, try to find the largest groove that your wire segment can pass through.  That represents the size or diameter of the wire.  As an example, a segment of wire that can pass through the groove that is labeled .040/18/1.02, but can't pass through the groove that is labeled .032/20/.812 is either 18 gauge or 19 gauge.  Since 19 gauge is relatively uncommon, it is likely that the wire is 18 gauge or 1.0mm.  (In European wire standards, 1.0mm is a common size of wire.)  

Please note, as we stated above, that the size of the round holes in the wire gauge are not important.  What is important is the size of the notch or groove cut between the outside of the wire gauge and the hole.