Flax Scutcher (scutching tool)

This wooden tool looks like something that you might find by the oven in a pizza shop, or maybe in a teacher's disciplinary arsenal.
It is used in preparing flax for spinning into yarn.
The tool is about 24 inches long, and the blade is about 4 inches wide. It's made out of a hard wood like oak or ash. It has rounded sides ending in a blade like edge, but not sharp like a knife, more like a dull spatula.
Flax was grown in the garden, then tied into bundles and placed in the pond to Rhett (rot) for a short time.
This rhetting loosens the outer sheath of the flax and readies the flax to be run through the flax break (I'll list a flax break at a later date). After the flax is broken, so to speak, it is brushed along a board using this Scutcher (not sure about the correct spelling), to remove the outer rhetted layer of fiber sheathing.
The flax is then ready to be spun into yarn and woven into cloth. ...hotairfan