Hedge layers measure.

TLM

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 16, 2019
3,227
1,701
Vantaa, Finland
millimetre, centimetre, decimetre, metre, dekametre, hectometre, kilometre

One does not have use the decimal system systematically, 13 cm is quite acceptable expression, in fact more often heard than either 130 mm or especially 1 dm 3 cm, in normal life so.
 
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Paul_B

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 14, 2008
6,404
1,695
Cumbria
When I finally left the student life and got a proper job I ended up dealing a lot with American and Canadian engineers. Annoyingly Fahrenheit to Celsius, Imperial distance measurements to metric and the added issue of American Imperial for some measurements. I was quite pleased with myself when I didn't get caught out by American Imperial but my boss did.

Anyway that was then and soon enough I saw company after company switch from drawings with Imperial to drawings with Imperial and metric in brackets to Imperial in brackets and metric out. Then finally just metric. It wasn't the Canadians leading the way but a mix of American and Canadian companies. It was about company culture and global reach. They were all companies dealing globally but some were bigger than others.

From our pov we accommodated them with datasheets and technical documents that have metric and imperial. Mind you some measurements on the datasheets could be mks or cgs metric. Then there's a few variations in metric. Do you use pascals or newtons.square metres (N.m2)? We had even more unit heavy units to consider anyone know what a Rayl is in base metric units?? What about Imperial?? You've got me with Imperial alternatives for Rayls.
 

SaraR

Full Member
Mar 25, 2017
1,651
1,209
Ceredigion
millimetre, centimetre, decimetre, metre, dekametre, hectometre, kilometre

One does not have use the decimal system systematically, 13 cm is quite acceptable expression, in fact more often heard than either 130 mm or especially 1 dm 3 cm, in normal life so.
I can't think of ever hearing anyone mixing metric units in the same way as people do with imperial (3 lb 4 oz etc)*, so 1 dm 3 cm sounds really strange to me.

I would say that we got two decimetres of snow, rather than 20 cm, unless I had been out to measure it. :) Much like when people say that there was a foot of water on the road, they don't mean exactly 1 ft but a rough estimate.


* apart from when describing how tall people are in Swedish (eg "1 and 72" = 1.72 m), but I've always assumed that "and" was instead of the "comma" for the decimal point.
 

TLM

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 16, 2019
3,227
1,701
Vantaa, Finland
Mind you some measurements on the datasheets could be mks or cgs metric.
I was introduced to those two variants at Uni but straight SI was used through out.
Do you use pascals or newtons.square metres (N.m2)?
Both as there is an ongoing feud going on between people on the use, some say Pa is a unit of pressure and so cannot be used as unit of stress. We mostly used Pa on both
We had even more unit heavy units to consider anyone know what a Rayl is in base metric units?
The few times I have had to deal with acoustics I guess I have just used given values without much thinking. Well it seems to reduce to mass/time*distance² so there can be several imperial variants, Heil Confusion.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
39,133
4,810
S. Lanarkshire
Ah, counting on fingers and toes :D


Funny how their written version isn't the numerical though. It's a sum. Four twenties instead of eighty. 4 x 20, or, 80.
 

Oliver G

Full Member
Sep 15, 2012
393
286
Ravenstone, Leicestershire
I can advise you not to say "Fathom" when someone asks your height during a medical, you'll get a strange look.

Going back to the chain, is it an actual chain or a rope that would be used? A chain can get quite heavy especially if there are 20 meters of it and a rope is susceptible to weather or someone using it to tie stuff up.

I've asked my wife if she has used a chain for hedge laying and she told me she uses a billhook (about 2'6").
 

TLM

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 16, 2019
3,227
1,701
Vantaa, Finland
The ones I have seen the military and some old surveyors use were actual chains. Apparently on some of them the links also were of defined length.
 

oldtimer

Full Member
Sep 27, 2005
3,315
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Oxfordshire and Pyrenees-Orientales, France
When I did a surveying course back in 1959, we used an actual chain. It had different links at each yard. Someone earlier has mentioned a Gunter Chain. The memory is hazy, but I think this is different from the one we used although I am not sure. I can't even remember whether our survey chain was 22 yards or something else. I never did complete the course and my ignorance is irritating my faulty memory, so if anyone knows more it would be a relief!
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
39,133
4,810
S. Lanarkshire
The chain was used because it was the best way of keeping a true length that was also easily transportable.
Rope stretches, and as the fibres age, it frays and shreds and fails.
Tapes are only as sound as the material they're made from, which usually stretches, and if coated, differentially depending on temperature.

Someone asked me once why they didn't just use bars of a certain length, like half a yard, joined together into a chain, and having handled 'slave chains', made just so, I can tell you bluntly that they don't pack tidily, they don't flex easily, the bar links judder and clank and wrench and pull and do not stretch out easily either.
A chain made of small links though will drop easily into a bag, will flex and pull straight easily to give a true measurement.
Engineer's chains are made of shorter bar links, but they're a pain to pack and store....bit like folding up modern LED Christmas lights, iimmc ?....and if I recall correctly they're 100feet long.

I believe that chains are still widely used in India for cadastral surveys, but they've gone metric now.

There has to be an online site about all this. Surveyors still use 'chain' measurements for some things, even though Archaeology only uses them for understanding past distance references.

M
 

champ

Member
Dec 20, 2020
38
7
70
Wessex
My friends fathers chain is metal.Made of rods that link together and fold quite tightly.Then secured with a wire or binder twine wrap.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
39,133
4,810
S. Lanarkshire
That sounds like the Engineer's Chain......though that said, I've just had a look on eBay and a fellow is selling a set for £20.


I know the slave chains didn't fold easily and they were made of short rods. In the end I packed them into a wooden crate to store.
 

birchwood

Nomad
Sep 6, 2011
460
108
Kent
Horses can be apparently measured in hands.I always assumes it was across the palm including the thumb.Not sure if this is correct.
Yes horses are measured in hands. It's 4 inches, across the palm. Although cms are beginning to creep in ,I have seen in some adverts. I have no idea what they are talking about.
We still use furlongs in horse racing.
I use a mixture of measurements making sails and boat covers, 20 foot sail , broadseaming in mms , 4 inch tapes etc.
 
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oldtimer

Full Member
Sep 27, 2005
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Oxfordshire and Pyrenees-Orientales, France
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