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	Web Inspire With Wire

Gauge refers to the width of the jewellery wire (also called the diameter).  The higher the gauge number, the thinner the jewellery wire.  So 14 gauge jewellery wire is thicker than 20 gauge jewellery wire (14ga also costs more too). 

There are two Jewellery wire gauage standards available:-

• The American standard. Called the “Brown and Sharpe gauge”, also referred to as B & S gauge.  In the UK this standard is also called the AWG (American Wire Gauge).
• The British version.  Called the “Standard Wire Gauge” (SWG).

We Australian's usually use the American version; they are similar, just be aware that they exist and they are different.   All information on this site uses the B & S standard (i.e. the American one).  Below is a table that shows the measurements for B & S Gauge & SWG; I've even put the millimetre conversions in there so you can make a little more sense of it.

Just so that you know, here are the base measurements to use for converting feet to metres and inches to millimetres.

	SWG (British)		B & S Gauge (American)
Wire Gauge	Size in Inches	Size in MM	Size in Inches	Size in MM
6	0.192	4.8768	0.1620	4.1150
8	0.16	4.064	0.1285	3.264
10	0.128	3.2512	0.1019	2.5880
12	0.104	2.6416	0.0808	2.052
14	0.08	2.032	0.0641	1.68
16	0.064	1.6256	0.0508	1.29
18	0.048	1.2192	0.0403	1.02
19	0.04	1.016	0.0359	0.9119
20	0.036	0.9144	0.032	0.81
21	0.032	0.8128	0.0285	0.72
22	0.028	0.7112	0.0253	0.64
24	0.022	0.5588	0.0201	0.51
26	0.018	0.4572	0.0159	0.40
28	0.0148	0.37592	0.0126	0.32
30	0.0124	0.31496	0.01	0.25
32	0.0108	0.27432	0.008	0.2032
34	0.0092	0.23368	0.0063	0.1601

Below are two tables that summarise the most common jewellery wire gauges available for Sterling Silver wire and Gold Filled wire and how many feet (Ft) and metres (M) you get per ounce (Oz) weight of wire.  

I have put the American ounce measurements in, as the jewllery wire is usually sold by the foot or the ounce (American measurements as they are still not yet metric!).  You will find that it is cheaper to buy jewellery wire by the ounce, as the more you buy, the cheaper it usually gets. 

Also note that there are different shapes!  Different shapes have different weights; therefore you get a different amount when using weight as the form of measurement.  If the table detail is blank, then I could't find the conversions - remember these are approximations only :-)

Table 1:- How Much Gold Filled Wire you get per Ounce.........

	GF Round		GF Half  Round		GF Square
Wire Gauge	Ft/Oz*	M/Oz*	Ft/Oz*	M/Oz*	Ft/Oz*	M/Oz*
6			1.74	0.53
8			2.57	0.78
10			3.96	1.21
12	2.16	0.66	6.97	2.21
14	5.45	1.66	10.84	3.30	4.29	1.31
16	8.65	2.64	17.82	5.43	6.81	2.08
18	13.8	4.21	27.91	8.51	11	3.35
19	17.54	5.35
20	21.68	6.61	42.87	13.07	15.95	4.86
21	27.59	8.41	59.82	18.23	20.93	6.38
22	35.55	10.84	62.5	19.05	25.92	7.9
24	56.33	17.17	112.66	34.34	41.87	12.76
26	83.33	25.4			68.76	20.96
28	140.77	42.91			110.84	33.78
30	223.71	68.19			176.15	53.69

Table 2:- How Much Sterling Silver Wire you get per Ounce.........

	SS Round		SS Half  Round		SS Square
Gauge	Ft/Oz*	M/Oz*	Ft/Oz*	M/Oz*	Ft/Oz*	M/Oz*
6	0.75	0.23	1.5	0.46	0.63	0.19
8	1.21	0.37	2.33	0.71	0.92	0.28
10	1.83	0.56	3.75	1.14	1.5	0.46
12	3	0.91	6	1.83	2.25	0.69
14	4.66	1.42	9.5	2.9	3.75	1.14
16	7.5	2.29	15	4.57	6	1.83
18	12	3.66	24	7.32	9.5	2.9
20	19	5.79	38	11.58	15	4.57
21	24	7.32	50	15.24	18.79	5.73
22	31	9.45	62	18.9	24	7.32
24	48	14.63	96	29.26	36	10.97
26	76	23.16			59.96	18.28
28	121.21	36.94			95.2	29.02

* These measurements are only approximate.  Most jewellery wire is cut by hand so may be just over/under an ounce weight.  Also the seller may be using a “normal” ounce weight (OZ) or a “troy ounce” weight (OZT) - which is slightly heavier.