How Is Flax Made Into Thread?

The skin or stem of flax plant gives out a fibre which is called the flax fibre. It is flexible and soft and has lustre. The green flax is harvested before the seed attains maturity for production of flax fibre. It is pulled along with its roots to get fibres with maximum length. Then, it is retted, that is, it is soaked into water to remove the non-fibrous part. The process by which fibre is obtained is called threshing. This process produces bast fibres. These fibres are woven into threads.

The threshing process is a two-step process. In the first step, the flax is processed into a fit state for common purposes. The outer hull is removed without breaking the inner flax fibre. Then, the broken debris of hull and short fibres is scraped. In the second step, the flax is brought into a state by refining machine which makes it useful for fine purposes like making lace, cambric, damask and linen. This, fibre is spun in a counter clockwise direction around a damp sponge or dampened fingers to obtain thread.