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Horse hair carpet


ronbarn

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Frankly, I had never heard of "horsehair" carpet. I just reviewed the 1927 Marmon Book of Facts which describes the features of the Model L and sure enough it says the floor of the rear compartment (rumble seat area) is covered with "finest grade horsehair carpet". Would hogshair carper be an acceptable substitute for judging purposes?

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I have a horse hair lap robe from that era. Looking at it, it would make a good carpet. They come up on EBay from time to time. I hate to see an antique of anything cut up but if you truly need horse hair that might be the answer....Bob

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Horsehair carpeting (as I understand it) usually referes to the underpadding. My father always referred to automotive carpet padding as "horsehair" no matter how many times I called it "jute". I recall once seeing real horse hair used as padding, quilted between two layers of heavy red cloth (canvas?).

Horsehair is a very coarse material, and was sometimes used in very old (19th century) homes for carpeting. It can be reproduced by a custom carpet manufacturer. I've seen articles online where this was done for registered historic homes, although no specifics were given. You might check with local historical societies and historic home restorers.

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Horsehair was often used in auto seat upholstery. Just removed a bunch of it from a aet of '27 seats we are redoing. Very course stuff used, I think, because it does not compact. It is still available I believe. Likely "horsehair" carpeting refers to the under padding as mentioned above.

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  • 7 months later...
Guest bkazmer

besides "the usual suspects" for hogshair like Hirsch, LeBaron Bonney, some modern carpets intended for high wear areas have similar appearance if you can avoid the sheen of synthetic fibers. For things like footrests, I've found upholstery velvet a very close match to some original (In my car the footrests and carpet were definitely different materials).

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  • 3 months later...

My father just acquired a 1925 Franklin touring, and the book calls for horsehair carpet. We also have a 1923 Franklin with the original carpet, and it is very coarse stuff. We always joke that if you were to walk on it barefoot, it would cut your feet.

The touring has modern carpet in it, and it looks out of place. Any ideas for a source?

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Guest Merchant Xpress

Had a mattress padded with horsehair and every once in a while a hair would work up and poke me. It caught fire and had to be thrown into the yard to put out. Every dog in the neighborhood came by to take a bite out of that mattress after it burned. Nothing to do with carpeting but that's my story anyway.

Harry

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