#scutching
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enniusredloeb.bsky.social
Ennius
@enniusredloeb.bsky.social
November in this calendar is the time to put flax in a ring and to break it with implements, and to scutch flax with a scutching knife.
#MedievalCalendar
MS M.399; Da Costa hours, illuminated by Simon Bening; ca. 1515 CE; Belgium; f.12v
October 27, 2025 at 10:37 AM Everybody can reply
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arielmarkenjack.bsky.social
Ariel Marken Jack
@arielmarkenjack.bsky.social
The plan is to try and make all of the equipment if we can! It doesn't seem too hard to make a simple hetchel or a scutching knife. There do seem to be some good resources for building a breaker if I can't figure out a simpler tool for the job, e.g. spindlesinthewild.com/portfolio/bu...
Building a Flax Brake
12" x 38" overall. Breaking area approx. 26" When I wrote up the plans, I didn't worry about the lumber lengths. When it came time to build it, I reworked the lengths to work with the lumber left over...
spindlesinthewild.com
May 14, 2024 at 3:06 PM Everybody can reply
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suewilkesauthor.bsky.social
Sue Wilkes
@suewilkesauthor.bsky.social
The machinery for 'scutching' flax was particularly dangerous. The flax stems were crushed by metal rollers to remove parts of the stalks. Workers (including children) sometimes got dragged into the machinery and could lose a whole arm. www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Young-Worker...
Young Workers of the Industrial Age
The industrial revolution was forged with the lives of our ancestors’ children. All over Britain, children and young people toiled for hours every day. Their…
www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
July 1, 2025 at 11:51 AM Everybody can reply
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wvpublic.bsky.social
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
@wvpublic.bsky.social
#WVPBInTheField Bryce Smith, a WVPB video producer, captures the movement of a group reenactors at the Flax Scutching Festival in Stahlstown, Pennsylvania.

Footage from the Flax Scutching Festiva will be used as part of WVPB's documentary Always Free, Mountaineers in the Revolution.
September 25, 2025 at 3:01 PM Everybody can reply
justrena.bsky.social
(Dr) Rena Maguire
@justrena.bsky.social
Beautiful plant but, jesus, the smell of it when scutching!
November 30, 2024 at 7:21 PM Everybody can reply
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enniusredloeb.bsky.social
Ennius
@enniusredloeb.bsky.social
November in this calendar is the time to put flax in a ring and to break it with implements, and to scutch flax with a scutching knife.
#MedievalCalendar
MS M.399; Da Costa hours, illuminated by Simon Bening; ca. 1515 CE; Belgium; f.12v @MorganLibrary
October 28, 2024 at 5:22 PM Everybody can reply
3 reposts 9 likes
3 9
jambomitch.bsky.social
Jambomitch
@jambomitch.bsky.social
Never been so happy to pull out of an away trip in my life. This has a scutching written all over it.
December 29, 2024 at 2:21 PM Everybody can reply
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rantyben.bsky.social
Ben Nagy
@rantyben.bsky.social
remember: first the threshing, then the retting (but not too much!), then scutching and finally heckling. Important not to mix up the order.
October 27, 2025 at 11:03 AM Everybody can reply
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coreopsismajor.bsky.social
Mx. Coreo Jones
@coreopsismajor.bsky.social
Scutching! Why did i spell it like that, I had JUST looked up the word?
March 18, 2024 at 12:00 AM Everybody can reply
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borntocreate.bsky.social
Jean Ottosen 🇨🇦
@borntocreate.bsky.social
Turning flax into linen. A workshop I was involved in last weekend.

#spinning #fibreart
A hank of golden hackled flax I won as a result of my Tour de Fleece efforts last year. Hackled flax just means the flax has gone through most of the process before you actually spin it. In this case it was still not soft enough to spin, so I ran it through the hackles until it was. Wooden flax brake of several sets of wooden blades on a hinged lever, standing waist height on the floor. You put your flax that has been grown, dried, retted (rotted) and dried again, into the brake and bring the levered handle down forcefully to break the outer covering of the flax stem. This exposes the strong flax fibres within. You do this multiple times to break up all the outer stem. Then you take the flax to the scutching board leaning up against the porch column there. The scutching board is a 1 x 6 has a v cut in one end. You place one end of the flax in the v, and hit the flax in a downward fashion repeatedly with a scutching knife. The scutching knife is like a chef’s knife, only it is made entirely of wood. It beats or brushes the rest of the exterior coating of the stem off the flax, and softens the inner flax fibres within more. After scutching the flax you take it to the hackles. The hackles are beds of nails. They come in coarse (further apart), medium (closer together), and fine (very close together - think of the old flower frogs). You use leather gloves to protect your hands as you thwack the length of softened flax onto the hackles, and pull it through to soften it more. By the time you’ve finished with the fine hackle, you should have a soft enough fibre to spin! Spinning wheel bobbin on the spinning wheel with linen spun from flax on it. Distaff in use, with long fibres of flax attached and ready to spin. Short flax fibres can be spun like any other fibre on the wheel. But the long fibres in flax requires the use of a distaff.
April 30, 2025 at 11:47 AM Everybody can reply
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awesomer.bsky.social
Amesower
@awesomer.bsky.social
Weird, satisfying crafts. I just watched several videos about breaking, scutching, and heckling flax.
July 9, 2025 at 8:49 PM Everybody can reply
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patsulanastya.bsky.social
Ukrartarchive
@patsulanastya.bsky.social
Oksana Pavlenko, Scutching hemp, 1918-1920
February 18, 2024 at 8:59 AM Everybody can reply
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scientistsoph.bsky.social
Dr. Sophie Kay
@scientistsoph.bsky.social
Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is...SCUTCHER:

"minds a scutching machine, which cleans cotton & delivers it in form of laps (smooth rolls resembling wadding)...takes off lap roller when full and starts fresh one; clears away obstructions in machine."

Dict Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Cotton scutcher, 1945
A working woman in a dress and apron walks through a cotton mill room carrying an enormous rolled bundle of lapped cotton. The cotton still has evident bobbled texture and other huge rolls of similar material are visible in the background. The room is clearly industrial in nature, with metal structures and internal brick walls visible in the working environment.
January 18, 2024 at 11:14 AM Everybody can reply
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kadeperegrine.bsky.social
Kade Peregrine
@kadeperegrine.bsky.social
And before that, people underestimate the labour that goes into farming and processing natural fibres. Wool: sheep farming, shearing, scouring, combing, spinning, plying, knitting/ weaving, sewing.
Linen: sowing, growing, harvesting, retting, drying, breaking, scutching, heckling, spinning, weaving
October 13, 2025 at 1:32 PM Everybody can reply
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rantyben.bsky.social
Ben Nagy
@rantyben.bsky.social
well, now I have heard the term 'scutching knife', and I would not say I am the better for it :\
enniusredloeb.bsky.social Ennius @enniusredloeb.bsky.social · 13d
November in this calendar is the time to put flax in a ring and to break it with implements, and to scutch flax with a scutching knife.
#MedievalCalendar
MS M.399; Da Costa hours, illuminated by Simon Bening; ca. 1515 CE; Belgium; f.12v
October 27, 2025 at 10:57 AM Everybody can reply
1 likes
1
saocousins.bsky.social
SAOCousins
@saocousins.bsky.social
More distractions from report writing. A crash course in turning flax into linen by a very enthusiastic man - we tried breaking, scutching, hackling
(Swedish words: bråkning, skäktning, häckling) Photo show Jessica's efforts
#stensjö
November 23, 2024 at 4:18 PM Everybody can reply
ksalex10.bsky.social
Kimberly Alexander
@ksalex10.bsky.social
Hello Seacoast New Hampshire #fiberfolk Join the UNH #FlaxFiles at the Newmarket Historical Society’s Stone School Museum for a #flax processing #demo & try your hand at #braking & #scutching flax. Let’s talk about #sustainability & #circulardesign #saynotofastfashion
July 20, 2025 at 1:14 PM Everybody can reply
2 reposts 5 likes
2 5
21rosa.bsky.social
Rosalind Ahmed
@21rosa.bsky.social
It might look like the entrance to a comedy club, but this #AdoorableThursday is all about retting, scutching, spinning & other flax related activities. The Heckling Shop was originally a workshop for ‘heckling’ - combing the flax from Ullathorne’s Mill in Barnard Castle, Co #Durham
April 10, 2025 at 8:31 AM Everybody can reply
3 reposts 36 likes
3 36
beebsymca.bsky.social
Brónagh 🇮🇪🇵🇸
@beebsymca.bsky.social
If you are going to the Dromore Linen Festival, see you there but if you were planning to go to McConville's Mill please don't
Eugene is a gentleman. He has dedicated his life to preserving the scutching mill. He has been treated disgracefully
Please note this is not a comment on the festival itself
Former owner says he’s been excluded from open day at historic mill where he spent his life living
Former owner says he’s been excluded from open day at historic mill where he spent his life living
www.irishnews.com
September 17, 2025 at 9:06 AM Everybody can reply
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juniperriver.bsky.social
juniper fiona apple rust
@juniperriver.bsky.social
Where is medieval bsky village located I need to know if we're going with almost entirely wool or also bast fibers because I am absolutely not scutching that much flax on my own
February 28, 2024 at 4:52 AM Everybody can reply
3 likes
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ksalex10.bsky.social
Kimberly Alexander
@ksalex10.bsky.social
First afternoon of #springbreak spent #braking, #scutching & #combing #flax from our 2023 harvest at UNH Department of History. @uofnh.bsky.social
Want to know what we are up to? Head to our blog: www.theflaxprojectunh.com/2025/02/than...
March 16, 2025 at 4:14 PM Everybody can reply
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enniusredloeb.bsky.social
Ennius
@enniusredloeb.bsky.social
November in this calendar is the time to put flax in a ring and to break it with implements, and to scutch flax with a scutching knife.

MS M.399; Da Costa hours, illuminated by Simon Bening; ca. 1515 CE; Belgium; f.12v
October 28, 2023 at 1:53 PM Everybody can reply
3 likes
3
rjbell.bsky.social
R. Jean Bell
@rjbell.bsky.social
A scutching knife is probably also easy to make, if stuff is even still done after the old process.
May 14, 2024 at 2:29 PM Everybody can reply
1 likes
1 1
amosq.bsky.social
ᴀᴍᴏꜱ
@amosq.bsky.social
He just shrugs, continuing to fuss with the little faux-bug. "Processing flax, probably. Spending every reasonable hour retting, scutching, heckling...if not tending to the damned plants."

He doesn't sound pleased by the prospect. It's agriculture and textile making, about as repetitive as it gets.
August 5, 2024 at 5:02 PM Everybody can reply
1