Measuring leather thickness - how to do it?

[Guppy]

If you Google "how to measure leather thickness" you will find a lot of articles about the converting ounces to millimeters. That's not what I'm looking for.

I'm trying to find out *how* the actual measurement is taken.

I assume with calipers? But given that leather is somewhat compressible, how do you ensure that you have measured accurately, and not over-squished it?

 

[TREEMAN]

Don't squish it. As soon as both ends are touching the leather...record the measurement.

 

[navetsea]

I think the piston of the micrometer is spring loaded or has compressed air inside or something, so you don't over compress it, I saw them just squeezed both handles and on the gauge needle it shows the thickness

 

[TREEMAN]

I'm not sure but I think on Fox Creek's website they measure the thickness of there leather. See what he uses..........When you figure all this out, I would be interested in knowing what you measured and how thick it is.

 

[samo]

Officially the leather thickness is measured under the constant weight i.e. spring loaded caliper. I measure it with caliper which i pressed quite firmly, after that I wait a few seconds so the leather can give up and then i make reading. I suppose that it should not be to much variances between standardised and "home" measurement.

 

[Plumbline]

I use a std. micrometer ... it has a little torque set tension screw ( that way I get a constant tension every time ).

The hardest part is finding a piece of leather of single thickness to measure