From Flax to Linen -- Handwoven Magazine

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[An article from "Handwoven" magazine, March/April 1997. You can order

this magazine and others from The Mannings Handweaving School and Supply

Center catalog.]

 

http://www.the-mannings.com/pages/catbmag.htm

 

 

article:

 

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/7231/flaxlinen.html

 

 

FROM FLAX TO LINEN

 

Although some 200 kinds of flax grow in the wild, flax grown for fiber

is *Linuim usitatissimum* (Latin for "the most useful flax"). This

species has been cultivated for centuries, and the processes for

converting its fibers into yarn are nearly as old.

 

THE FLAX PLANT

The textile fibers (called bast fibers) produced by the flax plant grow

the entire length of the stem as part of the phloem tissue, which

conducts sugars and other nutrients to all parts of the plant. Flax in

one of several plants (hemp and ramie are two others {HKDD: Is nettle

also in this category?}) that produce bast fibers for textiles. In

flax, the fibers arranged in bundles of ten to forty individual fibers

around a woody core, held together in a band by pectinous substances and

covered by an outer layer called the epidermis. Like other

bast-producing plants, flax must undergo several processes to extract

the fiber and prepare it for spinning.

 

When mature and ready for harvesting, flax plants are about 39 inches

tall {1 meter}. Plants intended for fiber are never cut but always

*pulled* from the ground to preserve the full length of fiber. The

pulled stems are laid on the ground or bundled and stacked to dry.

 

If seeds are to be harvested, they are removed after drying by threshing

(beating) or pressing the tips of the stems through a coarse metal comb

(RIPPLING) to remove the seed capsules.

 

RETTING

Retting is the process of dissolving the pectins that bind the fiber

bundles by the actions of molds and bacteria. The process must be

carefully monitored and stopped before the pectins that cement together

the individual fibers of the bundles are dissolved. Flax is retted

either by keeping the stems moist with dew and rain or by immersing them

in water.

 

In dew retting, the harvested stems are laid out on grass in thin,

uniform layers. Dew, rainfall, and occasional sprinkling when necessary

keep the stems moist enough for molds to grow and dissolve the pectins

binding the fiber bundles. The process usually takes two to four weeks,

during which time the stems will be turned one or more times.

Dew-retted flax is usually brown-gray in color.

 

Alternatively, flax can be retted in standing or slowly running water.

The bacterial decomposition that occurs during water retting produces an

unpleasant odor, and the time needed for complete retting depends on the

temperature of the water: it takes three to five days in a tank held at

86 degrees to 95 degrees Farenheit. Water-retted flax is pale gold in

color.

 

After retting, the pectins should have been dissolved, leaving the

entire flax stem largely intact. The stems are dried and then subjected

to mechanical processes - breaking, scutching, and hackling - that

separate the fibers from the woody stem material. These procedures were

developed when flax was processed by hand. Although machines now

replicate these processes, textiles craftspersons still use the hand

methods to prepare their own flax for spinning and weaving.

 

BREAKING

The dried flax stems are crush, bent, or crimped to break up the inner

woody core (also called boon), leaving the long, flexible fibers

intact. During the process, some of the boon separates and falls away

from the fiber.

 

The moisture content of the flax is important at this stage: too much

moisture makes it difficult to break up the woody core effectively,

while too little increases the proportion of valuable fiber wasted.

 

SCUTCHING (OR SWINGLING)

After breaking, most of the boon still adheres to the fiber. Scutching

gently scrapes away as much of the clinging boon as possible without

damaging the fiber. Scutching by hand uses a blunt wooden blade to

scrape the fibers as they hang against a wooden board. Scutching tow,

consisting of boon and short flax fibers, falls to the ground.

*Depending on its quality, waste fiber is used for making paper or

chipboard.*

 

HACKLING

The bundles of fiber are then drawn over hackles, combs consisting of

several rows of long metal tines that remove the last remaining pieces

of boon and align the long line of fibers in preparation for spinning.

The waste is mostly short lengths of flax called TOW. This is spun

separately into tow yarns, which are softer than LINE yarns, but not as

strong or lustrous.

 

PREPARATION FOR HANDSPINNING

Finally, the hackled flax is arranged on a DISTAFF for handspinning.

The distaff allows the spinner to maintain order in the bundle of very

long fibers and to stop and resume spinning with a minimum of disruption

 

FURTHER READING

 

Baines, Patricia. *Linen: Hand Spinning and Weaving.* London: Batsford,

1989.

 

Heinrich, Linda. *The Magic of Linen: Flax Seed to Woven Cloth.*

Victoria, British Columbia: Orca, 1992.

 

Hochberg, Bette. *Fibre Facts.* Santa Crus, California: Bette Hochberg,

1981.

 

*The Weaver's Journal* Fall 1982, 7 (2): Issue 26.

 

 

[ Captions to drawings:

 

1. Rippling removes the seedheads from the stalks.

 

2. Breaking crushes the inner woody core, leaving the fibers intact.

 

3. Hackling removes remnants of the core and aligns the fibers ready

for spinning.

 

4. Flax is arranged on a distaff to be spun.]