Sewing Needle | Needle Number System

A sewing needle is a long slender tool with a pointed tip. The needle must be able to penetrate the material being sewn, by pushing the yarns aside according to the application, without damaging it. Needle used for hand sewing since about 1800BC and made from bone, wood and stone. In 1800AD, Balthasar Krems of Germany was the first to use a needle with the eye near the point and he had developed it. Iron needles were introduced during the 15th century for hand sewing. The large scale production of sewing machines started about 1840. Curved needle is only used for blind stitching. Modern needles are manufactured from high carbon steel wire, nickel or gold plated for corrosion resistance. Today the still needle is commonly used.

Needle Number System: The size of a needle is generally showed in two ways although there are others.

• European Number System
• American Number System.

Below are the details of the needle number systems generally used by the needle manufacturers.

European Number System: It is express by a number metric (Nm). This represents the diameter of the needle blade in hundredths of a millimetre measured just above the scarf but not at any reinforced part of the blade. This number system indicates the needle shaft’s metric diameter when measured just above the eye. This number sometimes begins with "NM" for "number metric"; 1 NM is equal to a hundredth of a millimeter. The smallest size is 60, which indicates a needle with a diameter of 0.6 millimeters. To find the diameter of larger needles on the European scale, multiply the needle number by 0.01. 

For example, a size 90 needle is 0.9 millimeters and a size 120 needle is 1.2 millimeters. If you know a needle's diameter, you can easily find its European number by multiplying the diameter by 100.

American Number System : The another standard needle sizing method is the Singer/Asia numbering system sometimes referred to as the American system that uses a number that represents a size. American needle system isn't based directly on size, it does correspond with the European system. To convert an American needle number below 19 to its European counterpart, subtract 8 from the American needle number, multiply the result by 5 and add that result to 60.
For example, if you have a Size 12 needle, 12 - 8 = 4, 4 * 5 = 20 and 20 + 60 = 80. Therefore, if you have an American size 12 machine needle, it's size 80 on the European scale, which means it's 0.8 millimeters in diameter. Size 19 needles break this pattern; however, this means that you only need to memorize the 120/19 needle correspondence.

130/705 H needle system: This system is the standard for most consumer sewing-machine models. This system consists of the European number and its American equivalent separated by a slash. In the formal 130/705 H system, the European number always comes first: 120/19. However, some manufacturers put the American number first: 19/120. The name 130/705 H designates the general type of machine needle: "130" indicates the shank length, "705" means the shank is flat and "H" is an abbreviation for "Hohlkehle," which is a German word meaning "with scarf."

Below shows these Nm and Singer comparisons along with a number of other size references.


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