Flax Tools

I have been making progress on building the tools Ann needs to turn her flax into linen . The blue box  holds a Rippling Comb inset along the front. This is used to remove the seed pods after the flax is dry.I added it to the box in the hope that most of the seed pods will end up there. Do you like that lovely blue color? Yard sale paint! Ann has all of her flax pulled and in shocks drying now. After the seed pods are removed the stalks go through a process called RETTING which rots the glue that holds the fibers to the stalk.  The stalks then are put through the FLAX BREAK , the saw horse like device in the pic.

The stalks are pulled through the breaker while smashing them between the upper and lower teeth shown in this pic. This breaks the stalk into pieces but leaves the fiber intact. Next the wooden SCUTCHING KNIFE is   used to remove the bulk of the clinging pieces of stalk from the fibers. The fiber are held against a up right board in one hand and scraped downward with the scutching knife. That is the scutching knife leaning against the breaker. Setting on top of the breaker is a FLAX COMB, one of two that will be needed. This is the course comb. I still need to make a fine comb.

 The fibers are pulled through the combs to remove the last of the stalk pieces and to separate the fibers. At that point the fibers are ready to be spun into thread.
Here is another view of the break. It is hinged on one end and you just chomp the stalks as you slide them through.Weather or not any of my tools will do what they are supposed to remains to be seen. The flax will be in the shocks for another week or so and then we will try using the rippling comb.