Flax breaker

Before the advent of cotton and synthetic fibers, flax and hemp played an important role in textile production in the Luxembourg Moselle in the 19th century. Once harvested and dried, the plants needed to be broken to facilitate spinning the fibers later.

For this operation, a flax breaker was used — a wooden tool composed of two or four blades that interlocked like a jaw. The upper “jaw” was lowered to crush the flax laid across it.

Additional processing steps were still required to turn the plant into thread.