Economic Botany 2003, Ancient techniques of linen production of flax (Linum usitatissimum)

Economic Botany 2003

Renee Ruhaak, Marijke Langeveld

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Ancient techniques of linen production of flax (Linum usitatissimum)
The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the techniques which were used in making linen.
Ancient techniques of linen production of flax (Linum usitatissimum)
Flax ( Linum usitatissimum) is one of the oldest plants of which textile is being made.
European cloth made from flax, likely to be made of cultivated plants, of 8000 up to 9000 years old has been found. cloth made from flax, likely to be made of cultivated plants, of 8000 up to 9000 years old has been found.
Book 1: (Kalkman, C. Planten voor dagelijks gebruik, KNNV Utrecht, 2003)
Besides linen, flax is used for a high variety of other purposes, as its name says; Linum usitatissimum means ‘most useful flax’.
Both stalks and seed are exploited for human use.
From the fibres of the flax plant, paper is made, which is nowadays used in products as money billets and cigarette paper.
Longer fibres can be used as isolation material and the spinned thread is good for the stitching of wounds.
From the seed of Linen, oil is extracted (linseed oil) and that can be used as basis for paint (it is a quick drying oil) and to make linoleum.
The seed can be eaten and both oil and seed have a medicinal value. (1)
In the past, two types of L. usitatissimum have been cultivated; one which produces much good seed and a type that gives long, strong fibres.
The seed-producing plants are smaller and more branched than the plants for the production of fibres, which can become about 1 m. high and do not branch much.
From fibre plants, harvesting of seed is important too to get offspring.
Other than ramie, (Boehmeria nivea), which is a fibre plant giving soft, water resistant fibres, flax has the greatest tensile strength of any natural fibre, and is 20% stronger when wet.(1)
Spinning flax into thread is facilitated by properties inherent to the fibre, including its length (two to three feet when will prepared).
The cloth linen is very soft and it can be woven into a rather thin textile. It is a very durable textile which can be washed at high temperatures without shrinking.
A typical character is that flax is hard to spin evenly.
This makes linen not as smooth as cotton which is made from hair and not fibres.
Although flax has many advantages as a fibre crop, its overwhelming disadvantage is the amount of labor, skilled and otherwise, required from sowing to harvest.(9)
website https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/flax-production-in-the-seventeenth-century.htm
At the end of this paper we will discuss the future perspectives of linen.
FIGURE:Morphology of Linum usitatissimum. Flax is a small annual plant with lanceolate leaves. The fruit does not open.