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Flax: Planting, processing and working with it (Read 6643 times)
Teg
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Flax: Planting, processing and working with it
Dec 1st, 2013 at 5:58pm
 
In this thread I will post about my experiences with flax and the results. Over the weeks and months while working with it I will continuously add information (in a most probably not very structured manner Wink ). You're welcome to ask questions and contribute your experiences with flax. I'm also happy to hear your comments and ideas concerning the fibers, seeds, products, ... or possible further projects with them!

So here the first entry:
---
As announced elsewhere here some pictures of a sling made out of flax fibers. The whole sling was constructed "from the seed", meaning that I planted, harvested and processed it myself. This sling in particular was made out of raw fibers, meaning that I did not ret the flax. The resulting fibers contain a high amount of natural oil, which you can also smell and feel when you work with it.

In the first appended picture you can see the sling in the middle. In the background you can see some dried but not retted flax plants with the seed pods removed. To the right you see a bundle of processed, not retted fibers, and to the left some short fibers, a byproduct of the fiber extraction process. Out of this fibers I plan to make some coarse string. Below the sling you see some flax seeds. I also wanted to include some seed pods, but unfortunately I already threshed and winnowed them all.

To remove the seed pods after the harvest and to extract the fibers I used only simple tools: An improvised comb (some nails through a piece of wood), gloves and a self made round wooden mallet. For the winnowing I was not that "primitive" and constructed a sort of air classifier with a vacuum cleaner and some PVC pipe. I will post later (some weeks) about this two processes in detail.

You see that the sling has two colours: Green at the release cord, fair at the retention cord. The colour depends on how long the fibers (or the plant while drying) was exposed to sunlight. As I dried most of my flax in a barn, protected from sunlight, the fibers are green when they are freshly extracted. If they are exposed to direct sunlight they change their colour within one, maximally two weeks. The explanation of this process seems to be simple: The chlorophyll of the plant is degraded by the sunlight. The fibers from retted plants, of which you can see some at the bottom of the second appended picture, are a bit darker than this "sun-bleached" raw fibers.

The fibers of not retted plants are harder to extract by the way I did it, are also coarser and contain more "plant-glue" and wooden parts as the fibers from retted plants. But they contain a much higher amount of natural oil. As soon as I have made a sling out of fibers from retted plants, I hopefully can determine which are more durable.

The third and fourth pictures are close-ups of the braided sling, respectively the belly of the sling. I worked this sling completely dry, so I did not use water while working with the fibers. I will most probably make a second sling out of fibers from not retted plants and work them slightly damp, to see what is easier to handle and produces the better results.

Upcoming topics:
- winnowing of flax with a home made air classifier
- my current fiber extraction process with primitive tools in more detail.
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Tomas
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Re: Flax: Planting, processing and working with it
Reply #1 - Dec 1st, 2013 at 8:44pm
 
Teg, that's not only fascinating but also an amazin sling! What a cool experience that must be to have done it from the ground up hehe
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jlasud
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Re: Flax: Planting, processing and working with it
Reply #2 - Dec 2nd, 2013 at 12:39am
 
Excellent work!
I'm curious how retted vs non retted fibers behave to use and abrasion.
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Re: Flax: Planting, processing and working with it
Reply #3 - Dec 2nd, 2013 at 9:23am
 
Truly awesome! very nice sling.

This is how slings are supposed to be made.
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Re: Flax: Planting, processing and working with it
Reply #4 - Dec 4th, 2013 at 3:50am
 
Teg, that is fascinating! My greatest compliments to you!

Making a sling from seeds must be a great experience.
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Re: Flax: Planting, processing and working with it
Reply #5 - Dec 4th, 2013 at 5:45am
 
Imma grow hemp  Tongue
Maybe i can get a permit to grow. Must be funny when i go to get a permit with  dreadlocks,and tellem that i want to grow hemp. And try not to laugh..and my eyes not to be red.
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Teg
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Re: Flax: Planting, processing and working with it
Reply #6 - Dec 18th, 2013 at 3:42pm
 
So, my next entry: Fiber extraction from the dried flax stems.
I start with dried flax from which the seed pods were removed previosly. In the following two videos I show you my current process to extract the fibers.

Breaking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO59QumasaQ (10 min)
Scutching and Heckling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg6h0i1zcGU (7 min)

Tools used: Wooden mallet, a glove, improvised comb

In the beginning I did the same process without the glove. It is possible but in the end you will pick quite an amount of wood out of your fingers.  Wink

The only dried and not retted plants are much harder to work than the retted ones. You also have a higher yield of fibers with the retted plants. I'm very curios which fibers are more durable and give the better results.

During the process quite an amount of short fibers is produced. Save it! You can easily twist rough strings out of it.

Before you start working make sure that the flax is really dry. It is much easier to work dry flax than slightly damp flax. You even feel the humidity of the air.
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Re: Flax: Planting, processing and working with it
Reply #7 - Dec 18th, 2013 at 4:24pm
 
great videos. Cool
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Re: Flax: Planting, processing and working with it
Reply #8 - Dec 19th, 2013 at 5:04am
 
sehr schön teg! Wink
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Re: Flax: Planting, processing and working with it
Reply #9 - Dec 19th, 2013 at 6:23am
 
I understand that the flax has to almost rot before it's ready for use, otherwise it's too tough. True?
Any plans for flaxseed oil?
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Re: Flax: Planting, processing and working with it
Reply #10 - Dec 19th, 2013 at 9:18am
 
Shocked WoW Shocked Nice tutorial .... hmmmm ..
Cold press Linseed Oil next ???
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Teg
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Re: Flax: Planting, processing and working with it
Reply #11 - Dec 20th, 2013 at 1:11pm
 
Thanks for the replies!

slingbadger wrote on Dec 19th, 2013 at 6:23am:
I understand that the flax has to almost rot before it's ready for use, otherwise it's too tough. True?



Partly yes, partly no. To rot the flax is called "retting". If you want fine and long fibers, like for spinning, you have to ret it. The extraction of the fibers is much harder from only dried flax like I use in the video. In the first video I show in the beginning a bundle of retted flax.
However it is possible to extract the fibers from not retted flax like I do in the video. The fibers are coarser and the process is less efficient but you can definitely use the fibers to make slings.

Quote:
Any plans for flaxseed oil?


I have no idea what I will do with the seeds. I have around half a kilo of them. Around 200g  I need again in the spring to plant the new batch. Either I will eat the rest (e.g. for salads and bread) or make oil out of it. However 300 g will not yield much oil. I will see. Maybe a little bit of everything.

Next point will be to process the remaining flax and play around with the fibers, both short and long ones, retted and not. I still have maybe 20 not retted bundles and 50 retted bundles.

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Re: Flax: Planting, processing and working with it
Reply #12 - Dec 20th, 2013 at 1:52pm
 
How rewarding and fulfilling it must be to make your sling from scratch like that.  Great thread!!!
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Re: Flax: Planting, processing and working with it
Reply #13 - Dec 20th, 2013 at 2:42pm
 
Genial Teg
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Re: Flax: Planting, processing and working with it
Reply #14 - Dec 21st, 2013 at 6:54pm
 
Teg,

please bare my children....
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