Hand Tufted Rugs – Everything You Need to Know

Hand tufted rugs comes from countries in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Oriental countries and are commonly confused with their more expensive counterpart, the Oriental rug. It is important to know the difference as you could be paying almost double for an Oriental rug than you would for a hand tufted rug.

The way that a hand tufted rug is made is completely different to an Oriental rug, which makes the key difference. Lower quality wool is used and the maker will use either a hand tuft gun or a tufting machine. These two pieces of equipment have a needle that the wool can be thread through and then the needle goes into the canvas, which holds the rug’s design. By using a machine, a set amount of yarn can be fed through the needle, specific to the pattern.

The gun uses an air jet mechanism, which throws the pile wool onto the front of the canvas and a loop is formed; the height of this is determined by the amount that is being fed through the needle’s eye. 20 stitches are performed on every 10cms of the tufted line.

Once the rug has been made, the back is then glued together using latex. This has caused problems with the rug wearing very quickly since the material of the glue is very brittle. This is one of the main differences between Oriental and hand tufted rugs – Oriental rugs will not wear as quickly, which is the reason as to why they are so much more expensive.

The tuft guns and machines do not create natural fringe, unlike woven rugs, so they are usually glued on at the end – another major difference between the two types of rugs. This is another reason for them being so much lower in price.

Hand tufted rugs can be purchased all over the world and are commonly found on the Internet and in large department stores. You do need to be careful when buying on the Internet to ensure that the dealer is trustworthy and selling you authentic hand tufted rugs and not a fake one. It is best to go into a place to see the rug to ensure that quality. Most rugs will be no more than 700 dollars in price, anything higher could be an Oriental rug, which is much higher in quality and will have a very similar design pattern.