Hi, I’m the Gage Guy…for many years I’ve followed the interesting and very informative writings of a person known as the “Gage Guru” at Mahr-Federal Inc, one of the largest and well known gage companies in the world.  The premise with Gage Guru is to help inform and discuss gage topics that range from simple definitions to complicated gage application principles. I happen to know the alter ego of Gage Guru, George Schuetz, who has been at Mahr-Federal probably as long as I have been in the gage business…let’s just say a long time. I only met the Gage Guru in person about four or five years ago but it seems I’ve known him for thirty years. Over the years he would pop up in several trade magazines, industrial writings and internet blogs. I was always impressed with his writings whether they be informative or in some cases declarative, I made sure I told him so when I met him at a trade show several years ago. Now, we run into each other at trade shows and usually have a brief chat about the latest and greatest in our industry.

This is the first blog from the Gage Guy at Mahar and I think the first of many. I mentioned the “Gage Guru” earlier just to make sure we all understand that the Gage Guy is a blatant, unabashed copy of “Gage Guru”…sometimes being copied is the purest form of a compliment. I will not copy anything you may read or hear from the “Gage Guru”, but I will try to be as informative as he is on the subject of gages…or is it gauges?

Which brings me to the reason of my first blog…for many years we have seen both GAUGE and GAGE be used to describe as a noun, a measuring instrument or scale, or in some instances a verb, describing an act of measuring. This is one of those word battles that we can attribute to what I’ll describe as the “Americanism of the English Language” … (  I made that up ) … but even so, we can all relate to the evolution of the English language…SHOPPE v. SHOP or COLOUR v. COLOR…you get the drift…Over time, we have changed the spelling of many words and also changed the meanings as well. So…once and for all, the Gage Guy will put this subject to rest…even though Gauge is used to describe a measuring instrument, we American shop guys have decided that “GAGE” will be forever used as the describing of a measuring scale or instrument checking an actual dimension, i.e. Air Spindle Gage or Attribute Plug Gage as an example…whereas from this time going forward, “GAUGE” shall be used to describe the device used to show differentiation, pressure or speed, i.e. Air Pressure Gauge, Gasoline Gauge etc. etc. Besides, a long time ago, in a shop far, far away a very wise gage maker told me to use this aforementioned description…and that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

The Gage Guy will be back with more blogs in the future on this Mahar site, perhaps even sharing legitimate gage and metrology information for those interested…or perhaps we can look at another word I’m struggling with the actual definition…BLOG…what tha…