This spring we shared the theme “New age unleashes Hemp,” showing how plant fibre (textile hemp) is emerging as a material for a new era.
At weavearth, we keep our brand resources as open as possible. Below we introduce practical, technical points together with the actual process (first time published in Japan).
Details of our visit are in the first part and second part.
This article covers Decortication (Chinese: 开条).
(Thumbnail photo: hemp stalks piled at the 开条 plant.)
Decortication plant (one of the key steps in new-age hemp)
After retting, Cannabis sativa stalks are transported to a dedicated decortication plant. During our visit, intake had just begun.
(A tractor hauling >2 m stalks along a public road.)
Decortication separates the outer bast (fibrous part) from the central woody core—called hurd or shive (Japanese: おがら, Chinese: 麻屑).
(Cross-section of hemp from Textile Exchange “Growing Hemp for the Future.” The centre shows the hurd.)
A major innovation that overturns convention
This was the step we most wanted to see first-hand. The quality gap between old cotton-type spinning and modern linen-type spinning starts here—in pre-spinning preparation.
Cotton-type spinning turns plant fibre into a cotton-like flock and spins it (hence fuzzier yarns; often cotton blends). Linen-type spinning keeps fibres long and aligned (akin to worsted). The key is how to extract those long fibres from the core and feed them into spinning.
(Hemp fibre after alignment—ready for spinning.)
Historically, fibre was peeled by hand—labour-intensive and unsuitable for scale. Mechanising it is the leap. The decortication line (about 25 m long) doesn’t “peel” the bast; instead it crushes the core, then extracts and separates it—an elegant, unexpected approach.
The separated bast goes to the spinning mill as fibre feedstock. The hurd is stored for other applications and sent to different facilities.
(To be continued.)
