How To Tuft Without Tufting Gun?

January 13, 2022

Punch Needle, Tools

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Can I tuft without a gun?

Rug Tufting can be a relatively expensive creative hobby to start. You need a couple of must-have objects to tuft your first piece of rug. Because of this, you can think that it is possible to start tufting without purchasing a gun at the beginning. Here is our answer.

Tufting rugs can be done with different options. Nowadays the most popular choice is to do it with a tufting gun but yes, it is possible to tuft without a tufting gun as well. You can do tufting by hand, using a punch needle, this will do the same work that a loop pile tufting gun does. The only difference can be the speed of the process.

We can compare tufting gun and punching needle under different criteria, you can decide what you can use by considering these titles.

Style
Cost
Time
Usage

Table Of Contents

Can I tuft without a gun?
Style
Cost
Time
Usage

Style

One of the most important things is to decide which style you will go with. There are two different types of tufting guns; loop pile and cut pile. You can find a gun that can do both at an additional cost.

With punching needles, you can only do a loop pile but in the end, by cutting the loops with the help of scissors or a trimming tool you can transform it to look like a cut pile as well. Both different styles have advantages and disadvantages, they have different looks and It is possible to combine them in your design to indicate different parts of your design.

If you are not sure about making an investment in the necessary tools to start tufting the best option can first to try it out with a punching needle and a small/medium size tufting frame made from an old canvas. This will lower the starting cost dramatically and give the possibility of creating great-looking handmade rugs. The only downside is, that it will take longer compared to a tufting gun however, if you consider all the time that you saved by not building a tufting frame or waiting for the delivery of the tufting gun, it can be even quicker to start tufting the first piece.

Cost

There is no doubt that the Tufting gun will cost a lot more than the punch needles and there is only a number of online stores where you can purchase it. It is not really possible to buy it from a local store. You can check the most popular places to buy your gun from our recommended Tool Sets page.

The punch needle kits for starters are way cheaper and easy to find even in the local art/hobby shops.

Time

Another important issue with tufting is the time. Tufting guns will do the same work faster than the punching needle. Since it is a machine you do not need to do any physical work other than controlling the machine. But in my experience, even the control of the gun can be tiring because of the constant vibration and the movement of the machine.

In the case of the needle, you need to punch the rug patiently one by one with the punching needle. For a complete beginner, it is possible to complete a small-size rug in 1-2 days. But of course, it depends on the complexity of the design.

The two following rugs took approximately the same time to finish completely. (The one with the tufting gun was a bit faster than the punch needle.) You can try to estimate and compare the speed of the processes from the size difference between the two pieces.

Usage

Last but not least, tufting guns can be dangerous to use if you are not careful enough. You can check here to check which concerns to be careful when tufting. Since the tufting gun is moving fast, it is easy to make mistakes. Punching needles are easy to use and control, not as dangerous as the gun!

In conclusion, we can tuft a rug both with the tufting gun and punching needle. They both have some advantages and disadvantages but if you are a beginner the punch needle is definitely a safer option to start with.

*_{Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.}