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Rug Care: Properly Finished Rugs Don't Lose Knots

If the ends of your Oriental Rug look anything like this, your rug will need some proper attention. When a hand knotted rug is finished, proper care and attention needs to be taken to "finish" the fringe. While this problem is not necessarily indicative of a poor quality weaving job, it is a point of concern for the longevity and preventative measures to ensure your rug has a long, worry free life.

If a carpet which is losing knots is not properly attended to, rows of knots may continue to be lost. If unattended for extended periods of time, proper repair will be much more labor intensive and additional, unforseen rows may need to be removed. The value retention of your carpet could be greatly compromised. Re-knotting a carpet with short fringe is a very difficult and expensive proposition. Additionally, and most importantly, if the carpet is ever washed or shampooed, this work will have to be done anyway. If a rug with loose ends were subject to cleaning, standard techniques of washing would create much more of a problem. Most cleaners will not clean a carpet unless all ends are secure!

Reverse Side of Mashad Rug - needs overcasting!

Seen above is an older mashad Carpet from Iran. This particular rug was of very nice quality: wool and knot count. Unfortunately, there are rows of knots which are being lost. If you note the white-colored fringe (foundation running vertically) on the top, you will see there are two colors of blue woven within: a light blue and a navy blue. The light blue is the wefting of this piece, which runs from left to right. This is part of the structure of the rug which helps to keep knots in place. The navy blue wool as seen are actual knots: They are slowly releasing from the foundation of this rug.

Solution: The Mashad above was not finished. The simplest and least invasive way to remedy this problem is to have the rug overcasted as seen below. The image under this text is of an old Mohtashem kashan rug which actually has cross hatched overcasting. Usually one direction is sufficient. Proper overcasting may be done at your local reputable Rug Repair Specialist.

Reverse side of Mohtashem Kashan with Overcasting