FLAX FACTS

Today, when most people look in their linen closet they find sheets, towels and tablecloths made mostly of cotton and synthetic fibers. There was a time when these items were primarily made from a plant called flax. Flax is cultivated for its seeds, for its fiber and as an ornamental. Linen cloth is made from the variety of flax grown specifically for its fiber. Along with other fiber producing plants like hemp, jute, nettle and sisal, flax is a bast fiber, meaning the fibers come from the outer coating of the plant's stem. Flax has one of the longest natural fibers, with a staple length of up to 35 inches. For this reason linen cloth is both very durable and nearly lint-free but also very wrinkly.

The seeds of the flax plant are no less useful than the fiber; they are edible and used medicinally or as a nutritional supplement. When pressed the seeds produce flaxseed oil and if further processed becomes linseed oil, still used by artists as a carrier in oil paints and as a wood finish. During the 17th and 18th centuries, pigmented linseed oil was applied to thick canvas to make floorcloth; a durable, waterproof and decorative covering placed over wood flooring. Also made using linseed oil, linoleum flooring was first invented and used in the 1860s.

Flax plants will grow to a height of three feet and bloom with blue flowers after 50 to 60 days. It is harvested 30 days after blooming, before all of the seedpods have fully ripened. To harvest, the stalks are pulled up by the shallow roots (rather than cut). After being allowed to dry completely, the seed-pods can be removed from the stalks and saved for next season; this process is called rippling. To separate the bast fibers from the plant stem, the flax undergoes another process called retting. In this process, water is used to rot the gum or pectin which holds the fiber and stem together. To do this, the stalks may be soaked in a stream or pond, laid out in the morning dew or steamed. Retting can take anywhere from a week to a month depending on the process used. If left to soak for too long the fibers will weaken, ruining them. After retting, the stalks are bent and broken to remove the fibers from the stem. A variety of hand tools have developed over the ages to do this. Finally the fibers are pulled through iron combs, called hatchels, to fully remove any bits of stem.

Although it is one of the most utilitarian plants known to man, it has rarely been considerable a profitable crop. Unlike cotton, machine produced linen isn't superior to that made by hand; in fact, hand-processed flax fiber generally produces finer linen cloth. For this reason, the linen industry never became as industrialized as cotton or wool and as a result linen is usually more expensive to manufacture. Processing the fibers is hard and dirty work; I know this because we demonstrate the cultivation and use of flax here at the Slater Mill. If you are interested in growing flax for fiber yourself, be sure to look for the Linum usitatissimum variety.

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Andrian Paquette, Curator
Slater Mill
67 Roosevelt Ave., Pawtucket, RI