Hi folks! Ruthie with Arizona Oriental & Specialty Rug Care here and I know that a lot of you have spent a lot of time shopping for the perfect rug. If you have a rug with silk in it, you know that fact alone justifies the price tag of your rug pretty well. Silk is shiny, soft, and has extremely fine threads that allow master rug weavers to create tiny, intricate designs into area rugs. It’s not unusual for silk area rugs to have as many as 900 knots per square inch.
However, just because a salesperson tells you that your rug has silk in it, it doesn’t automatically mean that they’re correct. Many manufacturers have tried to copy the look of silk by producing alternative fibers and labeling with names that sound very similar to silk. This fools many people, including salespeople!
Some of these names include: Art Silk, Faux Silk, Bamboo Silk, Coconut Silk, Banana Silk, Flax Silk, Hemp Silk, Raw Silk, and the very popular Mercerized Cotton.
These fibers are NOT real silk and will not perform like silk. Faux silk fibers have a lot of cleaning challenges that come with them and don’t get the same, quality cleaning results that a true silk rug would. These rugs have a shorter lifespan and the fibers tend to “ugly out” much earlier than a typical rug’s lifespan. Stains are also harder to remove and color migration is very likely in faux silk rugs.
So how can you tell if your rug is REAL silk? An easy way is to take a look at the back of your rug and guesstimate the knot count of your rug. Lay a ruler on the back of your rug and count the knots going left to right in a 1” section. Then count the rows top to bottom in a 1” section. Let’s say that you counted 90 knots going left to right and 10 knots going up and down. If you multiply these numbers together, you’ll find out how many knots per square inch your rug has! Obviously in this instance, counting the knots would be pretty difficult because they’re so tiny and close together. Rugs that have a very high knot count are definitely true silk. Other fibers are not nearly fine enough to produce the same results.
Till next time, enjoy your beautiful art for your floor and remember a clean rug is a rug that can last you a lifetime!
Arizona Oriental & Specialty Rug Care serves Prescott, Prescott Valley, Sedona, Flagstaff, and much of the Northern Arizona areas. We meet the highest standards in professional cleaning of area rugs with rug wash specialists having earned the highest training, including certification as WOOLSAFE FIBRE CARE SPECIALISTS through the WOOLSAFE ORGANISATION. Such extraordinary certification ensures our client’s area rugs receive the highest quality care.
Give us a call for more information about cleaning and caring for your silk area rug at 928-445-1718, visit our website at www.ArizonaOriental.com, or stop by Monday through Friday 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at our rug washing facility at 565 EZ Street, Prescott, AZ 86301 (pick-up and delivery also available). 08-05-2020
