7.1.3 Hackling

Scutching is followed by hackling, which is actually a kind of combing. During this process, the fibres are repeatedly pulled through fine pins to remove remaining woody particles and to separate the short fibre from the long fibres; please note that these ‘short fibres’ are longer, finer and cleaner than the short fibres obtained during scutching. Subsequently, the long fibres are levelled out, spread on top of each other and processed into a continuous sliver of hackled hanks of line fibres. This sliver is given a slight twist to maintain consistency in the following preparatory operations of the (ring) spinning. The hackled sliver is turned into bales.

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Bales of hackled sliver (left); combed hackled sliver (right). Photos HOGENT.

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