# Fine Measurement, Circa 1978



## n3480h (Dec 15, 2015)

Before I retired the company gave me a well used 20th Edition of Machinery's Handbook.  I use it to this day. The original owner has noted on page 2440 that a Smidge is .060", and a Skosh is .030".  Nowhere else have I been able to locate this kind of precise solution to these old quandaries. 

Tom


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## francist (Dec 15, 2015)

I love stuff like that, and that really is the type of information that gets put away and lost over the ages. Every now and again at work I take great enjoyment in using terms like "scantling" and watch people's brows knit. 

Thanks for sharing that little "tidbit".

-frank


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## brino (Dec 15, 2015)

Ahhhhh Ha..............so TWO Skoshes per Smidge......... I knew it! 

I had an argument with a guy in the mechanical department just last week about this.
But, now I have an irrefutable internet reference to show him.

Thanks Tom!

-brino


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## maker of things (Dec 16, 2015)

Boy, that's going to be rough converting to metric.  Sounds like a skosh is a "hair" under a mm?


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## wawoodman (Dec 16, 2015)

brino said:


> Ahhhhh Ha..............so TWO Skoshes per Smidge......... I knew it!
> 
> I had an argument with a guy in the mechanical department just last week about this.
> But, now I have an irrefutable internet reference to show him.
> ...



And if it's on the internet, it *has *to be true!


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## maker of things (Dec 16, 2015)

But only because of this guy: https://xkcd.com/386/


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## astjp2 (Jan 10, 2016)

I love the term, half a bubble, on my level that is .0002"


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## wawoodman (Jan 10, 2016)

I use "half a kerf" quite a bit when fitting trim. When I taught guitar building, we used "half a sixteenth."


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## chevydyl (Jan 23, 2016)

Lol rch, you measured didn't you hahaha


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## fixit (Jan 23, 2016)

Information overload this morning


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## chevydyl (Jan 23, 2016)

Lol


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## Tony Wells (Feb 29, 2016)

C'mon guys, this is a family site.


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## 4GSR (Feb 29, 2016)

n3480h said:


> Before I retired the company gave me a well used 20th Edition of Machinery's Handbook.  I use it to this day. The original owner has noted on page 2440 that a Smidge is .060", and a Skosh is .030".  Nowhere else have I been able to locate this kind of precise solution to these old quandaries.
> 
> Tom



You got my curiosity up. Dug up my 20th edition Machinery's Handbook-First printing 1975, out of my tool box, thumbed to page 2440, the last page in the book before the index.  Nowhere on that page does it say anything about a "Smidge" or "Skosh".  Maybe they added it to the second or third printing?


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## n3480h (Feb 29, 2016)

4gsr said:


> You got my curiosity up. Dug up my 20th edition Machinery's Handbook-First printing 1975, out of my tool box, thumbed to page 2440, the last page in the book before the index.  Nowhere on that page does it say anything about a "Smidge" or "Skosh".  Maybe they added it to the second or third printing?



Ha!  Ken, I must have the "Deluxe Limited Edition".    My book was originally owned by the man who started the company many years ago.  One of the finest individuals I have ever known, and with a great sense of humor.

Tom


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## GK1918 (Mar 1, 2016)

Just ask anyone over 65 !


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## 4GSR (Mar 1, 2016)

n3480h said:


> Ha!  Ken, I must have the "Deluxe Limited Edition".    My book was originally owned by the man who started the company many years ago.  One of the finest individuals I have ever known, and with a great sense of humor.
> 
> Tom



My 20th edition came direct from the publisher. Bought it while I was still in high school!  They didn't have a "Deluxe Limited Edition" back then, or I would have bought it!  
Can you post a scan of the page?


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## 4GSR (Mar 1, 2016)

GK1918 said:


> Just ask anyone over 65 !


I have 6 years to go before my 65th birthday!  I not young by any means!


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## T Bredehoft (Mar 1, 2016)

I can't remember my 65th birthday. Logic tells me it was 1.2 decades ago.

_[Edit]_ correct stupid math error


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## n3480h (Mar 1, 2016)

4gsr said:


> My 20th edition came direct from the publisher. Bought it while I was still in high school!  They didn't have a "Deluxe Limited Edition" back then, or I would have bought it!
> Can you post a scan of the page?



Oh my.  Ken, I may have been unclear.  "Deluxe Limited Edition" was tongue-in-cheek, there was no such edition that I am aware of.  The original owner of the book simply wrote the Skosh and Smidge definitions on that page with a pen, also no doubt tongue-in-cheek.  I think it made him chuckle later on when he ran across it.  It certainly brightened my day when I ran across it years later.  I have no scanner, or I would certainly post a pic.

Perhaps we need a sub group for Tongue-In-Cheek Wise Guys, a better place for my original post.  My apologies, I just can't be serious very often after so many years of . . . seriousness. Perspicuity, not obfuscation.  See? There I go again.

Tom


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## 4GSR (Mar 1, 2016)

Tom,

It's all good.  No hard feelings.  I get serious at times and don't read between the lines on what is being said.  That is kinda of neat adding your own definitions to the "book".
I may just do that to mine for someone else later on, to read.

Thanks for sharing,

Ken


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## The Liberal Arts Garage (Mar 18, 2016)

wawoodman said:


> I use "half a kerf" quite a bit when fitting trim. When I taught guitar building, we used "half a sixteenth."


When my father was on the roof he'd holler to me (with saw) "right of the line"
"left of the line" "center of the line".    ........BLJHB


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## KBeitz (Aug 4, 2018)

A pinch is about 1/4 teaspoon and so is a smidge. A *dollop* is about a heaping Tablespoon.
A skosh is two smidges. A smidge is four pinches or a Tad or a Jig.
A _Tad_ is1/8th teaspoon. A Jig can be big or little...


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