The gauge of a wire is a measure of its thickness. Confusingly the lower the gauge of the wire the thicker it is. A 12 gauge wire is thicker than a 20 gauge wire.
In this country we refer to the thickness of wire in millimetres, whereas in the USA they refer to it by gauge. I often find it hard to flip between the two when I am reading American bead magazines so I use the wire gauge conversion chart below.
| Gauge | Approximate Diameter (in Millimetres) |
|---|---|
| 12 | 2mm |
| 14 | 1.5mm |
| 16 | 1.25mm |
| 18 | 1mm |
| 20 | 0.8mm |
| 22 | 0.6mm |
| 24 | 0.5mm |
| 26 | 0.4mm |
| 28 | 0.3mm |
