Carpet Stores salesmen confuse the buyer: Nobody is fully trained to spot a perfect handmade rug unless the person has the skills of making one. A commonly agreed statement is that an individual looking to buy a handmade rug would find it very confusing to figure out if it’s real or not. Handmade carpets are popularly produced in oriental countries and carpet lovers around the globe love to acquire them as they are a very rare sight these days. Though there are many websites and carpet stores on the internet selling fake handmade rugs, there are only a few ways to spot a handmade rug. Most of these have a weave pattern, knot counts, fabrics used and lastly the color source.

Commercial Carpets and Handmade Carpets: – Key differences in  Carpet weaving

The most important factor in a genuine handmade carpet is that it will certainly have a similar backside to it; reason being, the weaving patterns require a calculated amount of wool or silk fabric with the help of a loom type contraption as compared to a machine-made commercial rug. A commercial rug has a different base and background compared to the face of the rug.

Handmade rugs have longer fringes as these are altered later on according to the choice of the buyer and on the other hand, a machine produced commercial carpet would have no fringes or the fringes gets added later on for the finishing the rug to appear more aesthetic and original. Commonly used fabrics for making a synthetic rug are polyester, nylon and acrylic and these fabrics are easily available and budget-friendly. Machine-made industrial carpets are pleasing to look at but don’t last for a longer period as synthetic carpets lose their colors and softness due to regular washing. Authentic handmade carpets are made up of vegetable dyes as traditional handmade-carpet weavers did not have access to artificial dyes in the past age and times. Herbal dyes have a significant quality in many ways including creating patterns and motifs displayed on these rugs and also give a natural vibrant feel to them.

The ownership of possessing a handmade rug truly applies only if your rug is naturally dyed as it donates the ancient artistic feel and history to it. A handmade rug will always maintain the natural dye characteristics and the handmade rug continues to display more genuineness even with a moderate amount of foot traffic it welcomes on time to time. Stable dyes and colors are perfect proof in creating a long-lasting handmade carpet as these never get washed away over some time. One simple method to check if your rug is colorfast dyed is by placing a damp piece of wipe on the rug for 12 hours. If the cloth is covered in colors it means the rug doesn’t contain natural dyes or the colors are not stable. Hand knotting is the complex part of rug making: the weaver ties every knot diligently in a hand-knotted rug. It’s a painstaking and time-demanding process. Machine-made commercial rugs or hand-tufted rugs don’t need any trained personnel. They only need a hand-knotting gun which is used on a canvas-like base. Tufted rugs lose their charm over 5-6 years, whereas a hand-knotted rug can last up to 50 years or more. What’s so alarming about this is that sellers tend to line their pockets easily because the rug is cheap to produce. So buying a carpet whether commercial carpet or handmade rug, has dependence on many related factors, but buyers should do their homework properly before purchasing one.