Scutching

Scutching is a step in the processing of cotton or the dressing of flax or hemp in preparation for spinning.

[3] In the early days of the cotton industry, the raw material was manually beaten with sticks after being placed on a mesh, a process known as willowing or batting.

These processed the raw material into a continuous sheet of cotton wadding known as a lap.

In the early days, this was done by spreading the raw cotton on a mesh and beating it by hand with sticks, a process known as willowing or batting.

[5] The scutching machine passes the cotton through a pair of rollers, then strikes it with iron or steel bars, called beaters.

[5] The end result is a continuous sheet of cotton wadding known as a lap, ready for the next stage of the production process, known as carding.