School: Baile Bran, Ogonollae

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1. Linen (continued)

   

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   100
   valuable and much used,for making oil used in Painting etc.
   The stalk when fully grown is usually pulled by the roots and staked together or taken where ever convenient .it is left submerged in the water for a forthnight till it appears to be half rotten .It is then taken to a newly mown meadow .The sheaves open and spread as thinly as Possible left there for several days till fully dried when the stem is brittle.it is usually piled away in large bundles until the winter when the men of the family have leisure to break it.This was done by large wooden mallets on blocks or stones.This pounding merely broke the outer woody covering some fell away and still a good deal adhered to the sappy fibre.Then wooden scutches were used .The parts were held on the back of the kitchen chair and beaten with a down ward stroke .it was then pulled through a clover.A thing about four feet long and with a blunt wooden tongue much like an old fashioned razor of which the tongue was blunt and did not cut.
   The next process was to to procure a hackle a square heavy board long steel sharp teeth.It lay on the hack and the flax was pulled through the teeth by hand.The long flax remained in the hand and the short fell away.It was now ready for spinning .The short stuff was used for making canvas or coarse bagging .The method of spinning is somewhat different

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. activities
      1. economic activities
         1. trades and crafts (~4,680)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   P. F. Lynch

   Gender

   Male

   Occupation

   Teacher