In rugs, like in most things, one must start with high quality materials to end up with a high-quality product. In rugs, this means first-grade, unadulterated wools or silks, hand-spun if you can find it. In simple terms, the better the wool or silk, the better the rug.
How can one recognize good wool? It should have a certain luster or sheen, but it should not shine, per se. If you see HUGE color shift from end-to-end, and it's not silk, safest bet is to avoid it... it's likey at least part rayon or olefin. Synthetics don't wear like wool, and a rug that uses synthetics, even in addition to wool, is to be avoided. It is commonplace in today’s world to see poor quality wools blended with petroleum-based artificial materials to approximate the sheen of good quality wool. This is to be avoided at all cost, as bad wools will become brittle and fall apart, and petroleum-based materials (besides being ecologically-unfriendly) can sometimes take on an odd smell over time, especially if laid on a heated flooring surface.
A second way to recognize substandard wool is to watch for shedding. A small amount of shedding is to be expected from a natural fiber;however, coprious amounts of shedding on a short-pile rug indicates a problem. The most common culprit in excessive shedding is the use of "dead wool" (e.g. not shorn from live animals, but rather soaked off the hide of deceased animals using chemicals). While technically the fiber is wool, it isn't made up of long strands of hair, so it bears none of hte hallmark traits of beauty and longevity of the long-coat wools shorn from live sheep.
In general, the best quality wools are also hand-spun. This is easily detected in flat-weave rugs due to a “knobby” texture to the weaving, but is harder to recognize in hand-knotted rugs. Machine-spun wools are also perfectly acceptable; they are just not as highly prized and therefore a rug made with machine-spun wools should be less expensive than one rendered in hand-spun materials.
The makeup of “silk” rugs is actually much easier to test. One simply needs to pull a tiny strand of silk from the rug, and burn it. If it shrivels and smells like burnt hair, it’s silk. Any other reaction means the rug is made of some other substance, most likely mercerized cotton. Silk rugs, unlike their wool counterparts, should be extremely shiny when looking down the nap. High shine means a better chance you are seeing actual silk, as opposed to some other blend of materials. NOTE: Some rug dealers will use the term “art silk” when referring to certain pieces. Please be aware: “art” is short for “artificial,” and is not an indicator of superior quality- in fact, quite the opposite. Unless you're an expert, be DARN sure the person you're buying silk from is a trusted party, whom you can go back to, if your purchase turns out not to be what you were told it was. A good dealer will guarantee the authenticity of their pieces AND will be there to take it back if you run into a problem.
Is the task of sorting through all the fake and "faux," and "indo-" and "sino," getting overwhelming? We pride ourselves on offering a fully-vetted collection of authentic carpets and kilims. Please take a moment to peruse our offerings. We look forward to answering any and all questions you mat have!