Carpet scams

DeanMTL

I toured Rajasthan and just wanted everyone to know this:

When you shop for carpets, nearly every store or shop will try to sell you silk carpets and convince you they are all made in Kashmir.

In fact, they are made all over India, in thousands of small factories everywhere. They are not made of silk at all, but mostly of mercerized cotton, which is a weak and nondurable textile that is not prized at all in the collectors' carpet world.

Some of these carpets are beautiful anyways, so if you don't care about durability or authenticity of material then buy away, but be warned - at prices of 40,000 rupees at the bare minimum, this an extremely expensive proposition for cheap cotton carpets.

mridula

My, they as for 40,000 rupees! Hope you didn't buy one.

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Mridula

Travel Tales from India

RusherRacing

Well I am also looking into getting a good quality carpet silk or wool. However the room I want to put it in has a lot of light (sunroom). Can someone tell me if the dye they typically use is really good quality? I just don't want to see one of our memories from the trip be ruined in 5 years from the sun.

Also, I will have local from Jammu/Kashmire help with the negotating of the carpet or carpets.

Nick-H

I've seen 40,000-pound carpets.

In London.

Hey! They were reduced to half price

But that would still have been most of my year salary, and hey, I didn't have a big enough room anyway

anar

i travel to kashmir end of this month. although i don't intend to buy a silk carpet there, i would like to know how to tell one apart from a cheap cotton version, just in case i am tempted. any tips you could share would be helpful. i don't expect they try to sell the cotton ones when they produce silk ones in kashmir but you never know - the profits to be made may be reason why some may try to do this.

dillichaat

Pull out a thread and light it, taking care not to set the store ablaze and after asking permission. Cotton smells like burning leaves/paper and leaves a fine ash that turns to dust when touched. Silk smells of burning hair but so does wool. The residue is however, different, with a burning silk thread ending in a kind of 'bead'.

This test, however won't work with blends of materials nor with certain synthetics. If they cheat you I would surmise they'd do it by selling a synthetic/wool blend as silk.

It's a minefield. Whatever material it is, bargain brutally.

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When the wise man points out the black hole, the fool looks at the finger.

anar

thanks dillichaat, will keep in mind.

PeakXV

A pure silk pile feels much colder to the touch than cotton or wool. Also, when they say 100% silk - they do not necessarily mean that the foundation(warp/weft)is silk as well .... but if they're asking a big ticket price it ought to be!

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Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

edwardseco

Too heavy for me to ship back..

anar

Nick-H

Just a little bit over the baggage allowance .

edwardseco

I am still learning half crowns, farthings, florins. My spouse knows all this.!

Nick-H

Farthings (1/4 old penny) were only collectors' items by the time even I was born! So were Crowns (5/-, that's five shillings).

Shillings, florins (2/-), half crowns (2/6) were the stuff of my childhood.

(how did we get into this in the carpet thread?)

edwardseco

It unravelled..

Prashant.M

Good one edwardseco

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