What the convention boils down to
Every line on this site is sold on two declared figures: a diameter in millimetres and a breaking strain, given in kilos, in pounds, or in both. The corpus is full of the pairing — 0,16 mm at 9,0 kg, 0,12 mm at 6,1 kg, 0,18 mm at 10,8 kg, 0,13 mm at 8,0 kg and 18 lbs, 0,45 mm at 18 kg, 17 LB at 7,7 kg.
The pair is the specification. The ratio between the two is what separates a good line from a cheap one, and it is the only comparison on this shelf that survives between brands.
No body enforces either number. Both are the maker’s declaration.
What it does not promise
It does not promise the knot. A line breaks at a knot before it breaks along its length, and no declared strain accounts for the knot you tie.
It does not promise a round section. Braid is woven, and a single diameter describes it loosely — which is why strand count appears in almost every braid title in this corpus.
It does not promise agreement between its own two units: a spool printed in pounds and in kilos can disagree with itself, and this site prints both halves rather than choosing.
And it does not describe abrasion, stretch or memory — the three properties that decide whether a line is still usable in its second season, and which only the better listings name at all.
Where it shows up on this site
On all three line shelves, as the first line of every comparison. On the wire trace shelf, where the strain is given with a length because a trace is sold as a made-up item. On the reel shelves, because a reel size is a spool capacity for a stated diameter — a 1000 filled with 0,30 mm holds sixty metres, and sixty metres is not a session.
It is read alongside the spool length in metres, which is what turns two prices into a price per hundred metres.
How it is read here
A page prints the diameter and the strain as the maker printed them, in the units published, side by side and never one without the other. Where a listing gives only one, the page says which is missing.
Nothing is converted. The corpus shows exactly why: a maker that prints both units on one spool has already rounded them differently, and a conversion made here would produce a third figure that nobody published.
The questions that keep coming back
Which figure is the comparable one?
Both, as a pair. A line at 0,45 mm rated 18 kg is a better nylon than one at 0,45 mm rated 12 kg, and the price rarely says which you are buying. Reading one figure alone is how two very different spools look identical.
Why do pounds and kilos disagree on the same spool?
Because makers round each unit on its own. The corpus shows a spool printed « 17LB | 7,7 kg », and those two figures are not exact equivalents. This site prints both as printed and never converts one into the other.
Is a braid at 0,13 mm really as strong as a nylon at 0,45 mm?
The corpus prints 0,13 mm at 8,0 kg on a braid and 0,45 mm at 18 kg on a nylon, so no — but a braid at 0,13 mm is close to a nylon four times its diameter. That ratio is the whole reason braid exists, and it is why a leader is tied on.
Is the stated diameter measured?
It is declared. No body on this shelf enforces a measurement, and braid in particular is not round in section, so a single diameter figure describes a flattened line only approximately. The page prints what the maker printed.
Last reviewed 22 September 2026