Line flax (cultivation & processing)

Fibre flax (Linum usitatissimum) is grown as an annual crop in the European heartland of northern France (particularly Normandy), Belgium and the Netherlands — together these three countries produce about 80 % of the world's line flax. The plant grows to around 1.2 m and is pulled from the ground with roots attached in July/August using dedicated pulling machines, preserving the full stem and therefore maximum fibre length.

Retting follows: stems are spread on the field (dew retting) or immersed in water (water retting) so that micro-organisms break down the pectins between the bast and the woody core. Breaking machines then crush the woody shive, scutching removes coarse residue, and hackling combs the long fibres parallel and separates them from the shorter tow. Only these parallelised long fibres are spun on wet or dry ring-spinning frames into fine linen yarn — the shorter tow goes into coarser yarns or nonwovens.

• Origin: France/Belgium/Netherlands dominate with ~80 % of world production
• Harvest: pulling (uprooting) rather than mowing – preserves fibre length
• Retting: dew retting 4–7 weeks in field, water retting 7–14 days
• Fibre is two to three times stronger than cotton – ideal for damask, cambric, fine linen