It was in the late 1990s when I first started to learn a few things from my aunt about buttons. Back then, if she showed me a silver lustered button, I would immediately think it was metal. I was amazed that she could just look into a box of buttons and say that "metal" one was black glass.
One of the things she did for me was to give me a list of items that I would need for working with buttons. She recommended a little zip pouch to carry my tools, a lighted magnifier, an awl, a graphite pencil with an eraser, and some other things. One was a button measure.
Now, a decade later, I just bought my first button measure. After struggling all this time trying to get accurate dimensions on buttons by using a wooden ruler, I just spent a whopping $5.00 to buy the official NBS (National Button Society) measure. This thing is worth at least two or three times what I paid!
Now, my analogy is a little silly, I guess. But suppose you wanted to build a campfire at your tent site and you began rubbing sticks together to produce a spark to ignite some dry grass or paper when you had matches available? You just lost a precious commodity: time! That is how foolish I have been. Button measures are within anyone's budget, and I've stumbled along for a decade without one. Oh, well, confession is good for the soul.
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