My book [Materials and Processes in Manufacturing] has a picture of what looks like a paint colour chart (can't think of the proper name), but the caption says "set of surface-roughness standards" (photo courtesy of Surface Checking Gage Co. - I wonder if they have a website). I can only imagine one sticks a finger in the hole (now then ...), then tries to find the corresponding roughness on the "set of standards". I wonder if it's an equal opportunities job, of if people with fat fingers are denied access!

Now that I've read the text, they refer to "sets of surface-finish blocks" as shown in the picture.

Bit lo-tech though.

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Note added at 2003-12-12 16:01:20 (GMT)
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Haven\'t found any sort of real confirmation, but voL 2 of the CIRP Dictionary of Production Engineering gives:
Tastvergleich
comparison by touch
comparaison au toucher
with a definition in German only (usually it\'s trilingual):
Vergleich der Obenflächengüte eines Werkstückes mit der eines Musterstückes durch Tasten mit Fingerkuppe, Kupfermünze u. ä.
which my residual German translates as
Comparison of a workpiece surface with the surface of a model piece by touching with the fingertips, copper coins (???), etc.

I thought of the missing word: sampler.

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Note added at 2003-12-12 16:15:08 (GMT)
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That said, a couple of hits for \"surface-finish blocks\":

<<Because identical roughness values can be very different in appearance, surface-finish blocks enable a designer to better relate a desired surface, obtained by a specific process,
to the measured value that must be specified.>>
[http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/l/f/lfm3/PSU_IET101/DeGarm...]

<<Surface Finish Blocks-set >>(in a list of inspection eqpmt, including depth verniers, go/no-go gauges, etc.)
http://www.arenggroup.com/quality.html

And you will be pleased to know that they can be used with surface finish measuring equipment, so if you have fat fingers you might still get the job!