Hackler

Hackling, also spelled heckling, was the last step in dressing flax, after breaking and scutching. The worker drew handfuls of fiber through combs of pins, pulling out short, tangled tow and leaving long, clean fiber for linen yarn.

Many early American farm families dressed their own flax, so the word as a full-time trade usually points to work for linen makers or for rope makers who used hackled hemp.