Scutching

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A person scutching flax Harfleur - Compagnons duellistes - battage du lin.jpg
A person scutching flax
Threshing, retting and dressing flax at the Roscheider Hof Open Air Museum

Scutching is a step in the processing of cotton or the dressing of flax or hemp in preparation for spinning. The scutching process separates the impurities from the raw material, such as the seeds from raw cotton or the straw and woody stem from flax fibers. [1] [2] Scutching can be done by hand or by a machine known as a scutcher. Hand scutching of flax is done with a wooden scutching knife and a small iron scraper. The end products of scutching flax are the long finer flax fibers called line, short coarser fibers called tow, and waste woody matter called shives. [3]

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In the early days of the cotton industry, the raw material was manually beaten with sticks after being placed on a mesh, a process known as willowing or batting. The task was mechanised by the development of machines known as willowers. Scutching machines were introduced in the early 19th century. These processed the raw material into a continuous sheet of cotton wadding known as a lap.[ citation needed ]

Cotton scutching

Before cotton is processed, it has to be cleaned of its seeds and other impurities. In the early days, this was done by spreading the raw cotton on a mesh and beating it by hand with sticks, a process known as willowing or batting. [4] A scutching machine for cotton (known as a scutcher) was invented in 1797, but did not get much attention until it was introduced in the cotton mills of Manchester in 1808 or '09. By 1816, scutchers had been generally adopted. [5]

The scutching machine passes the cotton through a pair of rollers, then strikes it with iron or steel bars, called beaters. The rapidly turning beaters strike the cotton hard and knock the seeds out. This process is done over a series of parallel bars, allowing the seeds to fall through. At the same time, air is blown across the bars, which carries the cotton into a cotton chamber. [5] The end result is a continuous sheet of cotton wadding known as a lap, ready for the next stage of the production process, known as carding. [6]

Flax scutching

By hand

A Swedish woman scutching flax by hand, early 20th century. SLM DIA2022-0019 - Linberedning i Dillnas pa 1900-talet.tif
A Swedish woman scutching flax by hand, early 20th century.

To scutch flax by hand, the scutching knife is scraped down with a sharp strike against the fibers while they hang vertically. [7] The edge of the knife is scraped along the fibers to pull away pieces of the stalk. This is repeated until all of the stalk has been removed and the flax is smooth and silky. When scutching was done by hand, people could scutch up to 15 pounds (6.8 kg) of flax in one day, depending on the quality of the flax, as coarser flax, harder flax, and poorly retted flax takes longer to scutch. [7] Retting removes the pectins that bind the fibers to the stalk and each other, so under-retted flax is harder to separate from the stalk, and often gets damaged in the scutching process. Over-retting the flax causes the fibers to deteriorate and break. [3] These broken fibres are called codilla, which can be used along with heckled tow to make yarn. [8]

In the scutching process, some of the fiber is also scutched away along with the stalk, a normal part of the process.

By machine

Flax scutching machine Zwingelmachine (4).JPG
Flax scutching machine

Scutching is done several ways by machine. Scutching mills started in Ireland, and were commonly used there by 1850, at a time when hand scutching was still common in Continental Europe. Machine scutching, while faster and cheaper, causes more waste than scutching by hand. [7] One method of machine scutching is to crush the stalks between two metal rollers so that parts of the stalk can be separated.

A modern scutching machine can process up to 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) of flax every hour, and produces about 70 kg (150 lb) of flax fibers and 30 kg (66 lb) of tow (fibre). Older machines create more waste. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flax</span> Flowering plant in the family Linaceae

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linen</span> Textile made from spun flax fibre

Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jute</span> Bast fiber from the genus Corchorus

Jute is a long, rough, shiny bast fibre that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus Corchorus, of the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is Corchorus olitorius, but such fiber is considered inferior to that derived from Corchorus capsularis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenaf</span> Species of flowering plant

Kenaf [etymology: Persian], Hibiscus cannabinus, is a plant in the family Malvaceae also called Deccan hemp and Java jute. Hibiscus cannabinus is in the genus Hibiscus and is native to Africa, though its exact origin is unknown. The name also applies to the fibre obtained from this plant. Kenaf is one of the allied fibres of jute and shows similar characteristics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiber crop</span> Plant grown for fiber

Fiber crops are field crops grown for their fibers, which are traditionally used to make paper, cloth, or rope.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramie</span> Species of plant

Ramie, Boehmeria nivea, is a flowering plant in the nettle family Urticaceae, native to eastern Asia. It is a herbaceous perennial growing to 1.0–2.5 m tall; the leaves are heart-shaped, 7–15 cm (2.8–5.9 in) long and 6–12 cm (2.4–4.7 in) broad, and white on the underside with dense, small hairs—this gives it a silvery appearance; unlike stinging nettles, the hairs do not sting. The true ramie or China grass is also called Chinese plant or white ramie.

Retting is a process employing the action of micro-organisms and moisture on plants to dissolve or rot away much of the cellular tissues and pectins surrounding bast-fibre bundles, facilitating the separation of the fibre from the stem. It is used in the production of linen from flax stalks and coir from coconut husks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Textile industry</span> Industry related to design, production and distribution of textiles.

The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of textiles: yarn, cloth and clothing. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Textile manufacturing</span> The industry which produces textiles

Textile manufacturing or textile engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods such as clothing, household items, upholstery and various industrial products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jute cultivation</span> Process of growing the jute plant

Jute is one of the most important natural fibers after cotton in terms of cultivation and usage. Cultivation is dependent on the climate, season, and soil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bast fibre</span> Fibre obtained from the phloem tissues of many plants, used for textiles, rope, and paper

Bast fibre is plant fibre collected from the phloem or bast surrounding the stem of certain dicotyledonous plants. It supports the conductive cells of the phloem and provides strength to the stem. Some of the economically important bast fibres are obtained from herbs cultivated in agriculture, as for instance flax, hemp, or ramie, but bast fibres from wild plants, such as stinging nettle, and trees such as lime or linden, willow, oak, wisteria, and mulberry have also been used in the past. Bast fibres are classified as soft fibres, and are flexible. Fibres from monocotyledonous plants, called "leaf fibre", are classified as hard fibres and are stiff.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heckling (flax)</span> Combing process used to clean and straighten scutched flax or other bast fibers

Heckling is the last of three steps in dressing flax, or preparing the fibers to be spun. It splits and straightens the flax fibers, as well as removes the fibrous core and impurities. Flax is pulled through heckling combs, which parts the locked fibers and makes them straight, clean, and ready to spin. After heckling and spinning, flax is ready to be woven into linen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Setralit</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shives</span> Wooden refuse product from fiber processing

Shives, also known as shoves, boon or hurd, are the wooden refuse removed during processing flax, hemp, or jute, as opposed to the fibres (tow). Shives consist of "the woody inner portion of the hemp stalk, broken into pieces and separated from the fiber in the processes of breaking and scutching" and "correspond to the shives in flax, but are coarser and usually softer in texture". Shives are a by-product of fiber production.

<i>Linum strictum</i> Species of flax

Linum strictum, commonly known as rigid flax, upright flax, and upright yellow flax, is a species of flax with a rigid stem, from whence it derives its taxonomic name, growing to a height of 10–45 cm. The plant is endemic to the Mediterranean region. It features highly in classical Hebrew and Greek literature, owing principally to its cultivation for its plant fiber, linen, but also for its edible seeds and culinary foliage.

Cottonization is a process that adapts flax and hemp fibres for spinning with other staple fibres such as cotton or wool. Cottonization removes impurities and shortens the fiber length of flax for subsequent spinning processes. Cottonized fibers are helpful in blending with other staple fibers such as cotton or wool.

References

Notes

  1. "Scutch." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989.
  2. Morton (2008), pp. 74–77
  3. 1 2 3 Franck (2005), pp. 113–5
  4. Williams & Farnie (1992), p. 4
  5. 1 2 Fitton & Wadsworth (1968), p. 296
  6. Williams & Farnie (1992), pp. 6–7
  7. 1 2 3 Nicholls, George (1848). The flax-grower. pp. 45–48.
  8. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Codilla"  . Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 635.

Bibliography