He Germans, I finally ordered one of these online. We don’t really use these in England but after spending time in Germany and seeing them used fairly regularly I wanted in.

33 comments

1. What do you use instead? Just the rolls?

2. You are not supposed to buy them!

   You get them for free and then they slowly spread out over your entire house so there’s one in every drawer.

   And yet, you never find one when you need it.

3. Congratulations! Should you ever apply for citizenship you have to bring 3 artifacts for the final quiz. You just found one!
   All the best of luck on your quest for the other two!

4. They are really handy, you should order a second one though.

   Much easier to play the piano with 2.

5. As a bonus it’s one of the best beer bottle openers around. The crown cap takes off at recession velocity.

6. I think I have 7 pieces and don’t know where they all come from. I never bought one.

7. Bonus points for remembering all different German expressions for it, I think there are at least 4

8. Now the question remains what you do with it, now that you have abolished the metric system again 😉

9. When I got to Germany, I thought this was a joke, as well as the Bosch usb-chargeable drill (was gifted this last Christmas). Both are very handy in the right application. And I’m a master electrician.

10. My electricians where I work use these because they’re non conductive.

11. welome to the club!

12. Here in Canada, they aren’t making yardsticks any longer

13. Now do this everytime you have one in hand:

    https://youtu.be/4cQiN7p-Kt8

14. Happy measuring!

15. Great! Now give it to your kids, count to three and you’ve got two of them.

16. Fun fact: it’s called a Zollstock which roughly translates to inch-stick. Germans don’t really measure anything in Zoll anymore except maybe TVs (?).

17. FIY: The III between 6 and 7 is the accuracy classification. Foldable metersticks are generally class III, with a deviation of about +/-5mm per 10m. Tape measures usually have class II, with a deviation of half class III. More expensive tape measures can even have class I, which has a deviation of about +/-1mm per 10m.
    TL;DR: If you need precision, stick with tape.

18. Wait, you don’t have These in the UK? That’s a total mindblow for me.
    I wouldn’t say fairly regularly, Every Craftsman has at least one, most people who own at least basic tools have one 😀

19. Make sure you get one with a sliding metal insert so you can measure inside dimensions as well..

20. Congrats on your first Zollstock 😉

21. Zollstock terror !!! 😀

22. In Denmark they’re everywhere. Every craftsman/artisan have one in the side pocket of his/her pants. There’s even a special pocket for it in all work pants here.

    It’s called a “tommestok”, which means inch-stick. Even though we use the metric system 😀 . Tomme means inch and tommel means thumb. An inch is the width of the thumb… so there’s that.. History lesson over.

23. I married a German woman, and honestly, ever since we got married these have just appeared. I have two in my office desk at home now, we have two in the car, and have one (where you would normally think they’d be) in the toolbox.

    We have never bought one.

24. Pretty ironic that the Zollstock (literally “inch stick”) is useless in countries still measuring in inches.

25. i have 3 of ’em. 1 for me and 2 more for my 10 year old son to be wolverine.

26. What else do you use to measure stuff?

27. Guter Bieröffner

28. Somehow I find them infuriating to use. They’re always the wrong length (always too long or too short) and too bulky to get a good read on what I need measured. I fell like the only thing they measure well are flat planks of wood under 2m.

    I’d take a tape measure over these things any day.

29. Ooh, a Metrischer Gliedermaßstab!

30. It’s a Zollstock. It stocks Zolls.

31. Now buy some work trousers from Engelbert Strauss and enjoy the moment when you drop it into the specially designed pocket on your left thigh.

32. Aahhh – a man of culture , I see

33. One of us! One of us!