Indicators of Oriental Rug Quality

A question that comes up when picking out a rug for your home is whether or not, the rug of interest, is of good quality or not. Luckily, we here Sudbury Rug and Home have ample amounts of knowledge to make sure you make the proper purchase. We have wall to wall rugs in our store as well as making custom fabrications to your liking.  Here are some indicators you can look out for to make sure that you are going to be getting a good quality oriental or area rug.

Weaving Technique

In the oriental rug world, the technique in which the rug was woven is huge when comparing rugs to each other. There are three types of techniques; hand-woven, hand-tuft, and machine-made rugs.

  • Machine-Made: These types of rugs are nice to have, they function well and look nice. However, they can never be compared to hand-woven rugs in terms of being works of art and have special qualities about them.  You can tell if a rug is made by a machine if the fringe is sewn into the rug.
  • Hand-Tufted: These rugs sometimes get mistaken by hand-made, and even though a person is used in the process there is machinery involved. A person uses a mechanized gun that shoots the wool through a backing with a pattern sketched onto it. Instead of the knots being tied, hand- tufted rugs, use a petroleum based backing to make sure the ends to not fall apart.  Hand-woven rugs never have this backing.
  • Hand-Woven: These types of rugs are made with entirely by hand, which gives them a special attribute to them. They are regarded as the highest quality rugs. They are created with vertical string, warp strings, that are attached to a loom. Then wool is woven through the warp strings or knotted onto the strings.  To spot the difference from a hand-woven and machine made rug is to look at the fringes at the edge of the rug. As stated before, machine-made is sewn into the rug. For hand-woven rugs, the “fringe” is actually the warp strings knotted together and are an extension of the rug.

Weaving Quality

There are some slight indicators you can see for yourself to tell whether a rug is woven be a novice artist or an expert with more experience.

  • Symmetry in size: Even though some symmetry variations are to be expected in rugs there are still some signs you can notice to tell if an amateur created a rug or not. Is one side of the rug longer than the other? This can be the work of a novice weaver as large size variations is a good sign that a rug was made by an amateur weaver.
  • Symmetry in image: If your rug’s pattern looks different on the back of the rug, compared to the front, then it was woven by someone new to the industry.  A good weaver’s image will be same on both sides with little to no differences between the front and back.
  • Symmetry in knots : A good woven rug should have smooth knots with few bulges, bumps or puckers. In addition, a good woven rug should lie flat with out rolling or curling at the edges.

Quality of Materials

To make sure you are getting a good quality rug, you should take in account of the materials used to create such rug. A weaver who uses quality wool will create a beautiful and high quality rug. To recognize good wool, it should have a certain luster or sheen to it, but not shine. Bad quality wool can be combined with petroleum materials to great a sheen which can be deceitful. However, these bad wool become brittle and often take on a bad smell to them. Good wool will not have this smell and have a natural sheen to them.

If you would like to purchase one of our many rugs, please contact us today!

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