I would hope that you would want to be 100% sure that you had safe isolation before coming into direct or indirect electrical contact with any live conductor, whether via a metal caliper or anything else.I would want to be 100% sure I had safe isolation before using a metal caliper on an electrical cable.
True. It is also difficult (actually impossible) to know for sure whether an " 'Approved voltage indicator" is working unless one 'proves' it immediately before and after use for 'testing for dead'.A multi meter is not an 'Approved' voltage indicator .... It is difficult to know if a multi meter is working, or it could be on the wrong setting.
I admire your concern about, and stressing of, this important safety issue. However, I sometimes worry when people may be given the impression that using an "approved 2-pole tester" is a 'foolproof' solution - since it is, in reality, no more 'foolproof' than anything else if it is not proved immediately before and after every use. It is intrinsically unsatisfactory for a test device to indicate a 'safe' situation by 'doing nothing', and the best one can do to mitigate that is to make sure that it 'does something' immediately before and after it is used in anger (and 'does nothing').
Kind Regards, John