My father was a craftsman and a carpenter, so I grew up with a tape in my hand.
Sometimes it feels like I learned to read one not long after I was potty-trained.
Realistically I was eleven or twelve when I learned to use a tape measure properly.
When I was young it was all Lufkins. That was the go-to brand. Over the years I ran
Stanleys, DeWalts, and a few others, and for a long stretch I was all-in on
Milwaukee. They make an outstanding tape: heavy-duty, magnetic blade tip, and they
last. I’ve still got a half-dozen 16- and 25-footers floating around the shop from
my machine-layout days.
Most of what I do now is in the wood shop, and that’s where FastCap’s ProCarpenter
line took over and I haven’t looked back. These are the best-made, lowest-cost,
highest bang-for-the-buck tapes I’ve come across. The whole line shares the
features that matter: a note window you can write on and a built-in pencil
sharpener. And there’s one feature worth the price of the tape by itself, the
FastCap lever-action belt clip. I’ve lost count of the pants and shop aprons with
the right front pocket torn off from clipping a tape on and off all day. This clip
releases with your thumb, no pressure against the fabric at all. On, off,
effortless. No fighting it.
The other thing that sets the line apart is how many ways it comes: flatback,
lefty-righty so you can read it from either side, standard, metric, mixed, and a
true-32 full-metric that also reads righty-lefty. I keep a flatback in my apron
pocket, and a lefty-righty standard reverse 16-footer clipped to my belt. That one
is in my hand most of the day. Pick the layout that fits how you work and you won’t
want to go back either.
FastCap 
