What is the difference between Hand Tufted and Hand Knotted Rugs?

When youʼre looking for a new rug for your home, you may notice a number of different production techniques. Two of the most common terms youʼll come across when searching for rugs to buy are ‘hand-knotted rugsʼ and ‘hand-tufted rugsʼ. They may initially seem to be similar, but in fact there are a number of differences – so letʼs take a look at the differences between hand-knotted rugs and hand-tufted rugs.
 

What is Hand-Tufting?

Hand tufting is a newer technique, that has been developed to combine the ancient craft of weaving with modern day technology. The way hand-tufting works is that the weaver starts with a sheet of canvas or similar material and pulls wool strands through this using a tufting gun or tool.

What is Hand-Knotting?

A handmade rug, also known as an oriental rug, is a rug that is woven entirely by hand on a vertical loom. Knotting is a highly specialised 2,000 year old craft  of weaving requiring remarkable precision, patience and craftsmanship.

The method itself requires the weaver to insert knots into the rug and tie each knot tightly by hand around the warp and weft of the rug. These rugs are composed of many thousands of individual knots.

Weaving a hand-knotted rug requires a great deal of skill and often a lot of time to produce. The quality and cost of a hand-knotted rug is determined by the number of knots per square inch.

Differences Between Hand knotted and Hand Tufted Rugs

Hand-tufted rugs require less time to be woven than the hand-knotted alternative, so cost less to produce. However, that doesn’t mean that hand-tufted rugs are low quality; far from it, these are still rugs created by hand with much care and attention – and are chosen for palaces and upmarket interiors worldwide.

However, a Hand Knotted rug is more costly than a hand-tufted rug – the cost depends on the number of knots used.

Tufted rugs are fantastic if you are on a budget and unable to invest in a hand knotted rug, or if you want to buy multiple rugs or enjoy changing around your decor.

Aesthetic Differences

So how can you tell the difference visually between a Hand-Knotted and Hand-Tufted rug? There are a few key things you will notice.

The most obvious would have to be the back of the rug. The back of hand knotted rugs will be a translation of the front side of the rug. You can see each individual knot on hand knotted rugs on the reverse side and be able to count the knots per square inch.

The second thing to notice is the rug thickness. Tufted rugs are typically thicker and knotted rugs normally have a flatter pile. If a low pile height of the rug is important to you – for example if the rug is in a hallway and a door will have to open on top of it – be sure to measure the clearance in order to help you decide what type of rug will work best!
 

In todayʼs world, people are buying rugs for design, not necessarily of the number of knots in them. Many high quality art rugs are tufted. Nowadays the value of a rug is within the design and aesthetics, just as much as in quality.

Which rug is right for me?

Whether you choose a hand-tufted or hand-knotted rug is a matter of personal taste. There are differences which should help determine which type is more suitable for you. Price wise, handtufted is often more affordable. We recommend weighing up what is important to you about buying a contemporary rug. The design, thickness, production time, cost or durability.

Source: https://sonyawinner.com/blog/difference-between-hand-tufted-hand-knotted-rugs/?v=3a52f3c22ed6