Hand
Also searched as: handle, fabric feel, tactile properties
The tactile feel of a textile, including softness, stiffness and surface character.
In detail
Hand, also called handle, is the tactile impression a textile gives when touched or manipulated. Useful descriptions identify specific qualities such as softness, stiffness, smoothness or surface roughness. The word gathers several sensations rather than naming one universal numerical property.
The science and numbers
Instrumental hand assessment treats touch as a response to small deformations. The Kawabata Evaluation System for Fabrics (KES-F) applies small forces and strains with four instruments: KES-FB1 for tensile and shear, KES-FB2 for bending, KES-FB3 for compression and KES-FB4 for surface friction and geometric roughness. Together they yield a panel of characteristic values (one common tabulation counts eighteen), such as bending rigidity, shear hysteresis, compressional resilience and coefficient of friction. Regression equations derived from expert panel judgments convert those values into primary hand values, including koshi (stiffness), numeri (smoothness), fukurami (fullness and softness), shari (crispness) and hari (anti-drape stiffness), and then into a total hand value on a 0 to 5 scale for a specified end use. Because the equations are built for particular end uses, a hand value calculated for one fabric category should not be read as a universal softness score.
A practical example
Compare swatches with the same handling action: stroke the surface, gently bend them and compress them. Record what you notice separately. “Smooth surface but firm body” is more informative to another maker than an unexplained claim of “excellent hand.”
What to distinguish
Hand depends on the finished textile, not just its fiber label. Personal preference, fabric structure and finishing can change the assessment. A pleasant initial feel also does not prove durability or suitability for every skin-contact use.
Origins and history
Attempts to measure hand began with Peirce, whose 1930 paper 'The handle of cloth as a measurable quantity' (Journal of the Textile Institute Transactions, volume 21) introduced a cantilever bending test. In 1972 Sueo Kawabata, then a professor at Kyoto University, founded the Hand Evaluation and Standardization Committee, made up of experienced specialists from the Japanese textile industry. The committee agreed on Japanese descriptive terms for primary hand qualities and selected graded standard fabrics, and Kawabata's instrument system, designed from the same year, aimed to predict those expert judgments from measurement.
Related terms
Sources & further reading
- CottonWorks: Hand
- NC State Milliken Textile Protection and Comfort Center: Kawabata Evaluation System
- Journal of the Textile Machinery Society of Japan: Hand Evaluation by Instrumentation
- Journal of Natural Fibers: Objective Evaluation of Total Hand Value for Bedsheet
- Textile Research Journal: Improved accuracy in the determination of flexural rigidity by the Peirce cantilever test (ASTM D1388)
Technical references reviewed 2026-09-22. Examples are illustrative. Industry organizations and manufacturers describe their own fields; their references are not independent product endorsements. Figures are approximate and depend on the stated test conditions.