Comparison of Sewing Threads

I was buying some stuff online the other day and the whole order ended up around 170 NOK or so.
To fill up my "VAT-free limit" (which was 200 NOK at that time) I added a spool of thread.

When the goods arrived I was naturally most excited about the other stuff I bought.
Once I start looking at the spool of thread it immediately caught my attention. This thread is so smooth and even.

Normally I'm not so concerned about threads. I just sew with them and as long as they are in the correct colour I don't really care.
They say S&S threads (=Stoff og Stil, a large sewing sewing shop chain in Scandinavia) makes much more lint than for instance threads from Gütermann. Personally I had a hard time seeing any difference.

The thread I just ordered is Gütermann Mara and it's the first spool of thread which made me interested in sewing threads. So this calls for further investigations!
Below I've taken close-ups of some of my sewing threads.
The upper photo shows a section of 2cm, while the bottom shows 0.5cm.

Is there much difference between sewing threads? Maybe.
Most likely I'll just keep using the threads I already have.
On the other hand I might want to get more of Gütermann Mara...

Coats Duet

Gütermann #100

Stoff og Stil

First a little comparison between "normal" threads.
Most of the time I use S&S threads because they're cheap and fine.
I also have a few spools of Gütermann #100 (Sew All), which is their standard threads, plus a spool of Coats Duet.

Looking at the 2cm sections it's barely any difference between Coats and Gütermann.
S&S on the contrary looks rather hairy.
0,5cm sections reveals that at S&S in fact are more smoothly, but they have some loooong fibres pointing out. Coats and Gütermann have shorter fibres.

In practice the longer fibres of S&S threads would be more visible, but when it comes to durability I'm not sure it makes any difference.
For me I'll continue using S&S threads, but would use other brands for "nicer" projects where those long pointing fibres may be disturbing.

Coats Epic

Gütermann M782

Gütermann Mara 70

Coats Epic is what S&S market as "Denim thread".
Gütermann M782 is what's available in Norwegian sewing shops as "Extra strong" threads.

I really like Coats Epic because it's noticeable thicker than normal threads but at the same time not as thick and bulky as Gütermann M782.
Very nice for contrasting top stitches.

I see Epic is quite more hairy compared to M782.
Such a pity the latter one is so thick and not so great for light fabrics.
Then we have Mara... This thread comes in multiple thickness.
The one I have is tkt 70, which is somewhere between "normal threads" (i.e. Gütermann #100) and "denim thread" (Coats Epic 50).
Mara is available in normal thickness, denim thickness and extra strong.
Also extra fine, which is thinner than normal.
All this sounds so awesome, the only tiny catch is that Mara is nearly impossible to get!
The shop I bought from only have in black and olive.

As someone said in a forum:
"Gütermann makes the best threads you cannot buy."

In addition to being nearly free of outpointing fibres, the Mara thread is also way more evenly spun and twisted.
Compare the 0,5cm sections of Mara with for instance S&S or Gütermann #100.
Mara is simply much, much more uniformly twisted than the others.