11/09/2025
A little info about processing flax in to linen 💖🧶🦊
Flax is a tall, slender plant that’s been grown for thousands of years....not for food, but for its fibres, which are used to make linen.
Before you can wear it, sleep on it, or embroider it, though, it has to go through quite a bit of hard work.
And one of the key steps in that process is scutching!
After harvesting, the flax stalks are retted....soaked in water or laid in damp fields...to break down the natural glue that holds the plant’s tough outer layer to the softer fibres inside.
Once dried, the stalks are brittle and ready for processing.
That’s where scutching comes in.....
Scutching is the step where the woody outer parts of the flax stalk, called shives, are stripped away to expose the fine, thread-like fibres hidden within.
The process usually follows breaking, where the stalks are crushed between wooden blades or rollers to crack them open.
To scutch, a worker lays the broken flax over a scutching board and scrapes or strikes it with a scutching knife....a flat, blunt wooden blade shaped a bit like a paddle.
The motion knocks off the broken woody bits, allowing the usable flax fibres to separate cleanly.
It’s dusty, repetitive work that takes skill and rhythm, often done in the open or in a dedicated shed to contain the mess...bit like my office!
The result is a bundle of long, golden fibres...ready for hackling (combing) and then spinning into linen thread.
So while the finished linen might be crisp, smooth, and elegant, it all starts with a handful of flax stalks and a fair bit of scraping....I'd rather buy the finished product please!
