GRIFFIN Bead Cord Size Chart: Every Size from No. 0 to No. 16 Explained

No. 0, No. 4, and No. 16 are three example GRIFFIN's Carded Bead Cord sizes that look like a code the first time you meet them on a card. This guide sets out what every GRIFFIN silk cord size means in millimetres, which sizes exist in 100% Natural Silk, NylonPower, and High Performance, and how to match a diameter to the drill hole in front of you rather than to the bead on the box. GRIFFIN sums up that scale as Mastery since 1866, when triple-twisted silk pearl stringing began in Schramberg, and the same numbering still governs every card leaving the workshop today.

How GRIFFIN sizes its Carded Bead Cord (No. 0 to No. 16, not a gauge system)

Every GRIFFIN bead cord in the Carded range, GRIFFIN 100% Natural Silk and NylonPower carry printed sizes from No. 0 to No.16, while High Performance runs from No.0 to No. 10. It looks like a wire gauge system, but it isn't. The numbers are a sequential label for diameter, so a higher number always means a thicker cord.

GRIFFIN 100% Natural Silk and NylonPower are available in 13 thread sizes, from No. 0 (0.30 mm) to No. 16 (1.05 mm), while High Performance is available in 10 sizes, from No. 0 (0.30 mm) to No. 10 (0.90 mm). 

Every card carries the same two guarantees, triple-twisted and Needle Attached: the cord is twisted three times during manufacture to stop it fraying, and a stainless steel beading needle is attached at one end. That's what separates a GRIFFIN bead cord with a needle from cord sold on spools, where a needle has to be bought afterwards.

The full size table: No. 0 (0.30 mm) to No. 16 (1.05 mm), all 13 sizes

This is the full GRIFFIN thread-size scale, and the reference the rest of this article works from.

If a bead supplier gives you a drill-hole diameter in millimetres rather than a GRIFFIN size number, match it against this table directly: a 0.98 mm hole calls for No. 12, and a 1.02 mm hole calls for No. 14.

Which sizes exist per product line: 100% Natural Silk 13, NylonPower 13, High Performance 10 (No. 0 to No. 10)

The full 13-size scale doesn't apply to every GRIFFIN cord equally.

100% Natural Silk, still positioned as the best of GRIFFIN's silk bead cord range, carries all 13 sizes, No. 0 through to No. 16. NylonPower mirrors that scale exactly, also 13 sizes at the same diameters. GRIFFIN's NylonPower thread sizes are built to match silk's, not run to a different system of their own.

High Performance is the exception. It runs to only 10 sizes, No. 0 to No. 10 (0.30 mm to 0.90 mm), and stops there because its high-tech fibre is dense enough that the thicker silk and nylon cord sizes simply aren't needed for the loads it's built for. 

High Performance is also white only, and it's 15 times stronger than steel. Hard gemstones, metal beads, and beads with awkward or undersized drilled holes call for High Performance rather than silk or NylonPower.

Matching cord diameter to the drill hole, not to the bead

Bead size in millimetres and drill hole diameter are two different numbers, and it's the hole that decides which GRIFFIN cord size fits. A 6 mm gemstone bead can carry a hole anywhere from 0.70 mm to 0.90 mm depending on the strand, and pearl holes vary even more, since drilling is done by hand or on natural material that isn't perfectly uniform batch to batch.

Sharp-edged drill holes are also the most common reason bead cord breaks. A rough edge can cut into silk or nylon the same way a blade would, so it's worth running a finger over the hole before committing a whole strand to one size, and choosing a size that passes through with slight resistance rather than one that rattles loose. Knotting between beads, a traditional GRIFFIN Carded Bead Cord technique, adds a further buffer, since each knot stops the beads chafing against each other along the strand.

Diameter to bead type reference (0.30–0.50 / 0.60–0.75 / 0.80–0.90 / 0.98–1.05 mm)

This table maps every diameter in the size chart above onto the type of bead it's best suited to, so you can go either direction: start from a bead in hand, or start from a GRIFFIN size number.

Why the needle diameter matters as much as the cord

 With Carded Bead Cord, this is largely taken care of already, since GRIFFIN matches the attached needle to the cord it's fixed to, and no separate needle or double-threading is needed. It matters more with GRIFFIN's spool cords, such as Jewelry Nylon, where a separate Beading Needle has to be threaded on. GRIFFIN sells these in three sizes: fine at 0.24 mm, medium at 0.36 mm, and heavy at 0.50 mm. They are sold in bags of 25.

The two-needle white variant: sizes No. 0 to No. 12 only, 2 m

Alongside the standard single-needle card, GRIFFIN also sells a white-only two-needle version of 100% Natural Silk, with a needle fixed at each end of the cord. It's useful for techniques that start from the middle and work outward in both directions, or where a necklace needs identical finishing knotted onto both ends at once.

This variant is restricted to sizes 0 to 12 only, so No. 14 and No. 16 aren't available with two needles, and it comes on 2 m cards.

How much cord one necklace needs (2 m card maths)

A simple way to work out how far a 2 m card will go, multiply the number of beads by the bead diameter plus a small allowance for each knot, then add roughly 10 to 15 cm at each end for the clasp finish. Knots between silk or NylonPower typically add somewhere around 1 to 2 mm per bead, depending on how tightly they're tied.

Take a classic necklace-length strand, 35 to 40 cm finished, in 6 mm beads. That's around 50 to 55 beads, each taking up roughly 7 to 8 mm of cord including its knot, so the strung and knotted section alone runs to about 40 cm, leaving well over a metre of the 2 m card spare for the clasp ends and working slack. A single card comfortably covers one necklace at that length. Longer formats push the maths harder: an Opera or Queen-length rope in the same beads can use most, or all, of the card once the finishing allowance is included.

Printable size reference

A single table combining GRIFFIN's Silk, NylonPower, and High Performance cord sizes, worth keeping at the workbench:

For anyone still deciding between the three lines rather than just the size, the Natural Silk Buyer's Guide covers colour range and material choice in more depth.

13 sizes sound like a lot until they're laid out against the bead in your hand. GRIFFIN's own diameter guide, the actual drill-hole diameter rather than the label on the bag, and a quick pass over the actual hole edge will settle most sizing questions faster than the millimetre figure alone. GRIFFIN products are available through griffin1866store.com and through authorised GRIFFIN stockists worldwide.