This tool has changed my life!  Since I got started in the mouthpiecing arts back in 1992, I've measured countless mouthpieces - from big Tenor Saxophone Jazz facings, to small Austrian Clarinet Orchestra facings - and everything in between.   The standard "tip wands" I have used over my lifetime worked sort of okay, but they had frustrating issues.  1. Saxophone mouthpieces are typically expressed in thousands of an inch, requiring a totally different measuring wand, whereas clarinet mouthpieces employ the metric standard - again, requiring a different tool.  2. And to add to the turmoil, no two wands measure the same!  3. As we get older, our vision gets more challenged and it has become more difficult to see the wand's readings.  4. Using a wand is a practiced art form, which is cumbersome and inelegant.  5. Workflow could be better.  Tip wands require the process of gauging two, three, four times in order to get the average, from which your findings will only be moderately accurate.  That takes time and skill - and it isn't as accurate a method as what I've been wanting for all these years.  
 
Over the years I tried to find a better gauge, a better method - but I never really found happiness with any of the alternatives on the market.  They were cumbersome to use, and didn't fit within a typical mouthpiece maker's workflow, and at their worst, the other electronic gauges on the market will actually scratch your mouthpiece's tip rail!
 
So I ended up sticking with the old standard "wand", but then came the problem of finding a spare.  No two measure alike!  I ended up purchasing ten wands hoping to find two or three which were accurate.  That solution was a modest success, but sadly that is an impossible pursuit at this point because those metric wands are no longer in production and have been unavailable for years!  While most refacers end up with a mental awareness of how their less than perfect tip wand stacks up against the truth that's just not an ideal situation for anyone.  On the Saxophone side - imperial stubby wands measuring in thousandths of an inch are available and offer moderately accurate performance - perhaps due to the low resolution of imperial versus metric wands -  but they still have their inconsistencies, and don't fulfill to my ideals.   
 
So in a quest for a better measuring experience AND now that I've got a factory where our engineers need to be able to measure, and experience the same numbers that I experience, it became essential that we invent a better method of measuring tip openings.
 
First, we had to explore what is out there, and what actually gets the best results, and then improve upon that baseline.  So our engineer who is a machinist suggested (brilliantly) that we should use old fashioned metrology standards which a machinist would understand.  And from there it became an obvious choice to develop a "pin gauge" methodology.  For those who don't know what a pin gauge is, basically they are cylindrical steel "pins"  of sequentially larger and larger diameter, which are VERY accurate.  You can get them in all sizes, and the simple idea is that when you slip the pin between your glass gauge and mouthpiece held together, you will gauge the size of the tip gap.  AND this technique allows you to accurately interpret  the gap at the very tip of the tip rail OR the inner tip rail as it relates to the baffle.  It's quite simple and extremely accurate.  This pin gauging technique became the standard at our factory, And it was repeatable by any user - as long as the technique was understood, and importantly there was agreement that the inner tip rail was the target - right where the baffle and tip rail unite.  
 
Why should the inner tip be the point of discussion?  Well it is the area of a mouthpiece that I have long used to base my actions in the refacing process - it is the part of the tip that the "tip wand" measures and my friends in the refacing arts embrace.   Some large firms do in fact contrarily reference the outer tip rail measurement but they are in the minority so our gauge is setup for the system the artisan world has embraced and has used for decades. 
 
AND if you desire the measurement at the outer tip rail, you can simply slide the mouthpiece back from the alignment pins allowing the tip's flare to express on the indicator.  With practice you'll be able to witness many nuanced and important measurements on your tip rail - from side to side, to the center - all the way to the outer edge; and reliably and consistently you can always center back to the inner tip as your nominal dimension. 
 
It should be noted that saxophone mouthpieces - especially in the jazz community are expressed as a simple number, such as 6 or 7*, etc.  Those numbers are arbitrary, but have some general meaning.  With our gauge you'll develop an awareness of your personal truth, and how it relates to the industry's advertised numbers.  Beware as the truth might differ from what is advertised!
 
Back to the BEHN Tip Gauge - our design emulates the results of using a pin gauge, BUT the BEHN Tip Gauge is super easy to use.  No more misplacing tiny pins, mixing them up, or possibly losing them.  Everything with the BEHN Tip Gauge is right there on your bench in one form that can easily fit in your hand.  You can instantly and easily toggle between imperial and metric standards without any fuss.  And you'll get repeatable results day after day.