Wire and Sheet Metal Sizes

by JT

For wire, there are two different gauges: American Wire Gauge (AWG - also called Browne and Sharpe) and Imperial Standard Wire Gauge (SWG - British) There's a really nice table at http://www.reade.com/Conversion/wire_gauge.html that has the gauges, and what they work out to in inches and millimeters. Here's the part that most armourers care about:

S.W.G. Wire Num A.W.G. A.W.G. Metric
0.1040" 12 0.0808" 2.052 mm
0.0920" 13 0.0720" 1.829 mm
0.0920" 13 0.0720" 1.829 mm
0.0800" 14 0.0641" 1.628 mm
0.0720" 15 0.0571" 1.450 mm
0.0640" 16 0.0508" 1.291 mm
0.0560" 17 0.0453" 1.150 mm
0.0480" 18 0.0403" 1.024 mm
0.0400" 19 0.0359" 0.9119 mm
0.0360" 20 0.0320" 0.8128 mm


For sheet steel, there is a US Code that covers it. If you look at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/206.html you can find the official standard for sheet and plate iron and steel (brought to you by the department of verbosely repeated redundancies). Unfortunately, there's an error in the HTML on the page, and the table comes out looking bad. If you do a [View Source] it's more(!) readable :-)

Again, the relevent (to armourers) part is probably this:

Gauge Approx Thickness Weight
9 5/32" || 0.15625" 100 oz/sq-ft
10 9/64" || 0.140625" 90 oz/sq-ft
11 1/8" || 0.125" 80 oz/sq-ft
12 7/64" || 0.109375" 70 oz/sq-ft
13 3/32" || 0.09375" 60 oz/sq-ft
14 5/64" || 0.078125" 50 oz/sq-ft
15 9/128" || 0.0703125 45 oz/sq-ft
16 1/16" || 0.0625" 40 oz/sq-ft
17 9/160" || 0.05625" 36 oz/sq-ft
18 1/20" || 0.05" 32 oz/sq-ft
19 7/160" || 0.04375" 28 oz/sq-ft
20 3/80" || 0.0375" 24 oz/sq-ft


Inch-MM-Ga
Inch mm Ga.
0.001 0.025     0.029 0.737     0.057 1.448 15   0.085 2.159  
0.002 0.051     0.030 0.762     0.058 1.473     0.086 2.184  
0.003 0.076 40   0.031 0.787     0.059 1.499     0.087 2.210  
0.004 0.102 38   0.032 0.813 20   0.060 1.524     0.088 2.235  
0.005 0.127 36   0.033 0.838     0.061 1.549     0.089 2.261  
0.006 0.152 34   0.034 0.864     0.062 1.575     0.090 2.286  
0.007 0.178 33   0.035 0.889     0.063 1.60     0.091 2.311 11
0.008 0.203 32   0.036 0.914 19   0.064 1.626 14   0.092 2.337  
0.009 0.229 31   0.037 0.940     0.065 1.651     0.093 2.362  
0.010 0.254 30   0.038 0.965     0.066 1.676     0.094 2.388  
0.011 0.279 29   0.039 0.991     0.067 1.702     0.095 2.413  
0.012 0.305 28   0.040 1.016 18   0.068 1.727     0.096 2.438  
0.013 0.330     0.041 1.041     0.069 1.753     0.097 2.464  
0.014 0.356 27   0.042 1.067     0.070 1.778     0.098 2.489  
0.015 0.381     0.043 1.092     0.071 1.803     0.099 2.515  
0.016 0.406 26   0.044 1.118     0.072 1.829 13   0.100 2.540  
0.017 0.432     0.045 1.143 17   0.073 1.854     0.102 2.591 10
0.018 0.457 25   0.046 1.168     0.074 1.880     0.114 2.896 9
0.019 0.483     0.047 1.194     0.075 1.905     0.128 3.251 8
0.020 0.508 24   0.048 1.219     0.076 1.930     0.144 3.658 7
0.021 0.533     0.049 1.245     0.077 1.956     0.162 4.115 6
0.022 0.559 23   0.050 1.270     0.078 1.981     0.182 4.623 5
0.023 0.584     0.051 1.295 16   0.079 2.007     0.204 5.182 4
0.024 0.610     0.052 1.321     0.080 2.032     0.229 5.817 3
0.025 0.635 22   0.053 1.346     0.081 2.057 12   0.258 6.553 2
0.026 0.660     0.054 1.372     0.082 2.083     0.289 7.341 1
0.027 0.686     0.055 1.397     0.083 2.108     Aprox. 1/4" 0
0.028 0.711 21   0.056 1.422     0.084 2.134          



THE ARADOR ARMOUR LIBRARY
Webmaster: Eric Slyter
Assistant Forum Moderators: Mike Brock, Kara Frost-Slyter, Glen Kyle, Ron McWilliams, W. Reid Ripley, Christian H. Tobler, Dave Womble
Forum Archive: Marcus Grymme

No part of this site nor it's content may be reproduced without permission from The Arador Armour Library.
Please see our Legal Disclaimer.

Copyright 1995-2003 by The Arador Armour Library