Thread wt confusion on Poly and Nylon

**DemostiX** · 06-14-2012, 14:04

Confused here in trying to learn the feel of threads and needle sizes. I think I see what may have increased this confusion.

I've been practicing with two Coats threads. They are both fresh, both US made, and both for machine sewing.

T26 Nylon "Upholstery thread"
T67 Polyester "Outdoor thread"

Tex. Weight in grams of 1000 meters of thread. If 1,000 meters weighs 25 grams, it is a tex 25. Larger tex numbers are heavier threads.

Here's the thing: The T26 thread looks distinctly MUCH HEAVIER than the T67. Makes it hard to develop intuitions, when it "ought to be" the reverse.

What accounts for this?
Are the differences in densities of these thread so great? Mislabeling?

**Detail Man** · 06-14-2012, 19:15

For Coats and Clark, does the T in the product designation indicate the Tex size or is it simply a letter?

**Detail Man** · 06-14-2012, 19:35

Found this chart that might be helpful. http://www.coatsandclark.com/NR/rdon...dWtsByType.pdf

**DemostiX** · 06-14-2012, 20:23

I'll have to find the origin of that chart from Coats, because it doesn't make sense to me. Tex is supposed to be fiber weight in grams per kilometer. The chart shows weight and Tex going in different directions.

Maybe you had it right in your previous post, that I misunderstand what T26 and T67 labels are. Funny that a top hit file when you search on thread weight is a paper on the several systems from Coats which tells you that Tex is straighforward. But, then I find another file, also from Coats, which includes the "Ticket" system. Yeah, another "T", and that article has a correspondence of Tex and Ticket, going in opposite directions. So maybe one T26 and T67 are both from different "ticket" systems.

Nothing wrong with Clark thread if it is quality. But, I remain confused about what I have.

**Pag** · 06-14-2012, 20:48

Coats and Clark have a land mine style label system. I actually refuse to buy their nylons because of it. I find that a house brand thread is an easier identification from most any supply shop. Some of coats thread is characterized by tensile and others by weight and it is entirely dependent on location produced AND batch size. At one time I ordered 32 2# cones of a single color/weight nylon thread and there were three different reference labels giving different descriptors of the same thread. Try keeping a stock room organized with that mumbo jumbo on each spool.

It is very possible your 26 number is something other than Tex or tensile.

**Ramblinrev** · 06-14-2012, 21:12

It can be ill-advised to assume a cross manufacturer standard unless there is a governing document or organization that oversees it. To my knowledge, no such document of organization exists for thread manufacturing. There may be conventions but that is not the same as standards.