Sewing Machine Needles

[atalanta]

I have "inherited" a large quantity of haberdashery, including numerous sewing machine needles. ( Standard Singer-style) The sizes seem to be stamped on them, visible with magnifying glass, but I can't tell which ones are sharp points and which are ball-points. Is there an easy way to distinguish these ?

[gness]

Not sure of an easy way, Atlanta...others may know...

I get my needles mixed up and can tell by tapping them on my finger but I've been sewing for donkey's years...

If you are using a needle on ordinary fabric and it skips a few stitches as you sew it will be a ballpoint......or dead blunt.....☺
If you are using knit fabric and you get some snags you will be using a sharp instead of a ballpoint because a ballpoint goes around the fabric rather than sharply pinging through and splitting it.....

So I guess it's suck and see......x

[jourdain2]

Agree with gness. I can usually tell by tapping with the end of my finger. Ball-points for fragile fabrics don't prick as hard as sharp-points, for cottons etc.. Lucky you on the 'inheritance'.

[atalanta]

I could insert and thread up twenty-five different needles, try each of them out on two different fabrics, noting down which needles were used for which fabrics, then wash, dry and iron them several times to see whether holes would develop in wear. But I asked for an easy way to distinguish them.

[gness]

Apologies, Atlanta....I was trying to be helpful, and as J and I both said, tapping on your finger is a quick way.....can't believe there is a quicker one.

Why would you need to do all that sewing, washing, ironing endless times?
If you're using a sharp on knit it usually starts to snag straight away unless you are lucky then it doesn't matter.
If a fabric requiring a sharp starts to skip stitches you are using a ballpoint.

You can hear the difference but I can't describe the sounds on here.

[thelewisgang]

ball-point needles are tapered. I think if they are quite old they would be worth disposing of as using a needle that has had several hours use on a machine wouldn't do the fabric much good at all whether ordinary or ball-pointed ones. I do a lot of sewing & it is good to find "colour coded" needles rather than having to depend on a magnifying glass to work out the size.