I have been following this thread about the loss of very fine flax with interest.
I know that about ten years ago Bart & Francis in Belgium were looking into the possibility of producing fine linen thread again, and Francis Busschaert kindly sent me a sample of 130/2 NeL linen. His comments at the time were that the thread was brittle but they didnât want to use wax/cornflower/starch because that would affect the end product and that the mercerisation process doesnât work on very fine linen. He also said that separating out the finest fibres was horrendously expensive and would yield maybe only 10kg from a 200Kg bale. That would have made the price of a 250 metre spool about 12-15 Euros (ten years ago) which was more than he thought even the specialist lacemaking market would bear. I measured the sample as 34 wraps/cm which isnât that fine when compared to the finest cottons. The next thickness up in the B&F range of linen is 60/2 NeL is still available on their website, and which I have measured as 24 wraps/cm. I believe that the reason for the loss of the finest cultivars was a combination of commercial pressures and the mechanisation processes which were not suited to the finest flax and that these were exacerbated by wars. Like it or not, the world has moved on and very fine linen is not available any more. There are other fibres which can be spun into very fine threads, cotton and silk are best suited to lacemaking, though the finest are the synthetics and I guess that medical use is the driver in the development of those. Brenda > On 31 Aug 2018, at 05:50, robinl...@socal.rr.com wrote: > > 1) The cost of breeding over many generations to produce the extra-fine fibers, > > (2) the cost of growing the more fragile plants (those fibers are what keep the plants standing upright), > > (3) the cost of trying to spin and weave on mass-market machinery (where speed trumps delicacy and fragile fibers can't take the stress), and > > (4) the delicacy of the resulting fabric (can't be machine washed or machine dried or machine dry-cleaned, and even hand-washing has to be extra-careful) Brenda in Allhallows paternos...@appleshack.com www.brendapaternoster.co.uk - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
