OK guys, it does read from 1". I hauled out my old 454 which I have never ever used since I got it and it does, indeed read starting from zero reading one inch, exactly. Put the lower side of the scribe on top of the measuring arm and the bottom of the scribe will have it zero out at exactly 1 inch. Dead nuts. If you put the scribe on the bottom of the measuring arm, it reads 1.7"+. And by the way, my calibration also starts reading from 1". I guess they figured that if you were measuring height with a 12" or 24" height gage, you weren't real concerned about measuring the first 1".