The diameter of the wire is measured with a micrometer screw. The tolerance which the wire had before weaving can no longer be measured in the woven condition because of the deformations. However, the machined nominal diameter can be calculated using the empirical weight formula.

With mesh widths of 4 mm to 1 mm 10 to 15 spacings (p = w + d) are counted in a row and the length of this measuring field is then determined.

With wire meshes with a mesh width of less than 1 mm the number of meshes (spacings) in the measuring field is determined with the thread counter. The measuring field length L, divided by the spacings, results in the spacing measurement p, the wire diameter d is subtracted from this to obtain the mesh width w. To obtain the mean arithmetical value of the mesh width sufficient spacings must be measured to provide a reliable statistical values.