beetling
Sign in to savethumb|Beetling engine. thumb|Wellbrook beetling mill in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Beetling is a textile finishing process, where linen or cotton fabric is pounded to produce a flat, lustrous effect.
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thumb|Beetling engine. thumb|Wellbrook beetling mill in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Beetling is a textile finishing process, where linen or cotton fabric is pounded to produce a flat, lustrous effect.
== Process == Beetling is a textile finishing method used to obtain an aesthetic finish (i.e. lustre) in cotton- or linen-based fabrics. The fabric is wetted and treated with potato starch, and then hammers repeatedly rise and fall on exposed fabric for over 100 hours. The finish imparts a lustrous and absorbent effect which is ideal for linen dishcloths. It also changes the texture of the fabric, stiffening it somewhat so that it is similar to leather.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “beetling” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.