FIBER: 100% dew-retted raw flax. This material was purchased from J. J. Ryan and Sons in Greenwood, South Carolina, as their Rylin 500 grade raw flax, custom cut to 1/4-inch lengths, and imported from Belgium. The cost is approximately $800 for a 400 pound bale. The same material is currently available in small quantities from Carriage House Paper in Somerville, Massachusetts. Although it is somewhat greyer in color and contains a bit more shive than I would prefer, unlike many "unbleached raw flax" grades, it is a fine quality line flax entirely free of any chemical treatment or boiling prior to shipment. FERMENTATION: Fifty-four hundred grams of air dry flax were soaked in a 32-gallon "roughneck" garbage bucket with approximately 110 liters of hard water. Our well-water supply is filtered for iron (Culligan potassium permaganate) and chlorine (Culligan activated carbon). One gallon of fresh whole milk was added to the water and flax and mixed in well to help "feed" the fermentation. A round sheet of plastic was cut to fit the top of the bucket to keep air from reaching the surface of the ferment, thereby slowing or preventing an unwanted black growth, common if air is available. The normal bucket lid was also kept in place. The ferment was mixed every day or two for the first week and then every two or three weeks for the next six weeks. At the end of six weeks, the milk/water mixture (mildly acidic) was drained off, replaced with fresh water and 400 grams of lime* (alkaline), and mixed well. After another twelve weeks with mixing every few weeks, the fermentation was drained for cooking. COOKING: The fermented fiber was boiled at about 6% consistency for approximately four hours in a 0.4% lime solution. (This concentration did not include the unknown lime residual from the 400 grams added during the second part of the fermentation.) After cooking, the fiber and liquid were left to stand overnight. The next day the liquid was drained off in a strainer, leaving the fiber ready for beating. WASHING AND BEATING: Beating was done in approximately 1500-gram loads in a Nobel and Wood cycle beater fitted with a special drum-type washer. Washing with very gentle brushing of the fiber lasted about 40 minutes, followed by 17 minutes of light beating, with continued washing. (During the washing and beating, fresh water is let into the beater tub at the same time the dirty water is being removed. A light, natural-colored paper is therefore possible from an otherwise dark fiber without the use of chemical bleaches.) At the very end of the beating, 1% calcium carbonate was added (based on the weight of the dry fiber) to help lighten the color and provide alkaline reserve material beyond that already remaining from the hard water supply. SHEETFORMING, PRESSING AND DRYING: Sheets were formed on 22- by 30-inch laid moulds, couched on 1/16 inch true felt material, pressed in a 200-ton press, laid in spurs of ten sheets (each separated by a damp felt), pressed lightly, and hung to air dry. After drying, the sheets were misted slightly to humidify and relax them, and then redried in a stack dryer to remove cockling remaining from air drying. The finished paper is unsized. REMARKS: Much of this approach to papermaking grows out of my recently completed study of early European papermaking methods. While it is obvious that the early papers will never be duplicated, due to the lack of well-worn linen and hempen rags, it does seem possible that very attractive and successful papers might be made by utilizing some of the early methods. Fermentation, washing during beating, unrestrained air drying, and other techniques can yield a very wide range of papers from a fiber like raw flax which normally is associated only with a tough, hard, finished paper. I am not yet satisfied with these fermented flax book sheets. I have been striving for years for a more golden off-white without the addition of calcium carbonate, by fermenting and washing alone. More experimentation and work lie ahead. Fermentation times closer to eight or ten weeks seem adequate when using the methods described. The longer times used for this sample were more a result of scheduling problems and experimentation than plan. Readers interested in a copy of the entire report on the research referred to above ("Early European Papers / Contemporary Conservation Papers", a 160 page manuscript) should watch for notification in Hand Papermaking of the published, sampled edition, planned as a special issue of The Paper Conservator and due out in 1989. * Slaked lime: calcium hydroxide (Ca[OH][sb^2es])

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