Flax fans, are you ready to get hands-on with your flax processing to the next level? In our amazing flax community, our creative and resourceful members have started to create their own DIY tools or adapt inexpensive, ready-made tools for processing small amounts of flax, about 1 SQM...
The best part? You can access open plans for these tools right here!
Flax Brake:
The plans for the compact single brake are on our Buy Me a Coffee page, "Build you own flax brake"
These plans are shared under a CC BY 4.0 NC SA license, i.e. free to download share and add to, provided the use is non-commercial and credit is given to the creator. The CC BY 4.0 NC SA license needs o be applied to derivate work.
This flax brake is very compact for easy storage. To increase the yield of broken flax straw per hours of processing, you might consider extending the design by a third in length.
Some of our members followed these instructions and the brakes work very well too.
Scutching:
We used hardwood dowels, 18mm diameter, 25 - 30 cm long. At a pinch you can use a smooth bamboo stick ...
Hackling:
Coarse hackle:
This hackle was actually an appropriated plasterer brush, and it can be bought here:
This step can be omitted for smaller amounts of flax harvests (e.g. about 1 sqm crop).
Medium hackle:
This hackle is a good step to add in the process, especially if you are after a larger portion of line fibre. 
The very kind Darren created the drill templates. The boards are made from hardwood (oak), about 2 cm thick, and 10 cm wide. You would need to buy your own nails, I used these nails from screwfix.
Skipping this step might create more tow than line fibre, which is fine for those who prefer to spin tow.
Fine hackle
Again, for small amounts a single handheld flax hackle is sufficient (or a pet comb, stainless steel).
The double comb hackles you worked with were made by my husband, but we have not managed to share the plans yet (partly as the combs with wooden handles are discontinued). We are working on it, and as before if anybody has a brilliant idea to share, please let us know.
Flaxland UK sells a hackle unit, that also includes a coarse hackle.
Fine hackle
Some people have also had good success with using a large flower frog as a fine hackle for small amounts of fibre. (choose the large size, 8 cm +)
Combing:
Super fine hackle comb:
I used old coarse and fine carders. Again for small amounts of flax, small and large pet combs can be used for that step in the process, as long as the tines are stainless steel. Winghamwoolwork.co.uk does very reasonably priced mini hand carders too :)
If you wanted to create your own boards, Wingham Woolwork sells just the carding pads which you can staple to a board (thanks Marie for the tip!). They come in pairs of two, perhaps you can buddy up with somebody?
We hope you find this helpful :)