All about Axminster Carpets

An Axminster carpet is synonymous with quality and luxury, and all authentic Axminster TM carpets are still woven using natural materials and traditional methods.

Part of the base of the carpet is the Jute ‘weft’ which is passed between alternate parallel cotton ‘warps’.  The wool yarn is fed into carriers which are controlled by a jacquard.  A colour is selected by the jacquard, which causes the corresponding yarn to be offered up by the carrier to a gripper.  The grippers then draw the pre-selected lengths of yarn which are cut by a series of knives.  The resulting tufts are positioned between the warps by the grippers, and retained by each pass of the weft.

In this way a woven lattice of tightly packed cords and wool tufts build up to form a carpet, at the rate of three to five yards per hour, under the expert supervision of the weaver.

The quality of the carpet is determined by the number of tufts per square inch, the count or weight of the yarn and the length of pile.