The hackling was accomplished by means of the simplest devices, such as pounding with hammers or sticks.

The next operations consist of "breaking," "scutching," and "hackling" and are now done by machinery.

I should have softened it first by a hackling process, as we used to hackle the hemp in Kentucky; but I did not.

It is then dried and broken, and afterwards “scutched,” and rendered still cleaner and finer by a process called “hackling.”

The prickly skin appears to have been used by the Romans for hackling hemp.

This first combing process is sometimes called roughing instead of hackling.

In the case of hackling by machinery, the flax is first roughed and arranged in stricks, as above described under hand hackling.

In the construction of hackling machines, the general principles of those now most commonly adopted are identical.