We have a 50 foot Hughes Owens Lufkin measuring tape.

It's an old leather covered case job probably about 60+ years old;
apart from the first ten inches or so which have frayed and
disappeared mechanically it is in pretty good shape. It works, we have
used it occasionally by ignoring the first 12 inches!

It was the property of my late father in law, who was under age
infantry veteran of WWI, which he used used as carpenter while, among
other things, building US bases here in Newfoundland, Labrador and
Greenland in the early 1940s during WWII.

He is long gone now. I'd like to fit it with a new tape and hand it on
to my son, who never met his grandfather.

And darn it. A few years ago I had found a site that could provide a
replacement tape but never pursued it.

The 'linen' tape is 19/32 (nineteen thirty secondths) a touch over
half inch or about 15 mm wide; and 50 feet long. Tape thickness
(measured in the middle around 25 foot point is about half a mm.

Thanks for any advice or help as to a source for replacement and it
would be most appreciated. Terry

PS. I'm not sure about this but I do vaguely recall the replacement
might been f.glass or something????