Fine Papermaking with 100% Cotton Linter & What is it?

For all serious Papermaking, Paper Casting, Fiber Art Paper, and a hundred other paper related arts and crafts, one tiny fiber, hardly longer than the commas in this sentence is considered by many to be the best fibers to use. The fiber is known as Linter, Linters, Half Stuff and Rag and many other names. So what it is? It is Cotton! But not just cotton. But a tiny fiber that is left behind on the cotton seed after ginning removes the longer cotton fibers from the seed. The seed are then spit out in to huge mountainous piles many stories high, where they are later scooped up and shaved. The shavings are called linter and it is just the finest, silky fiber of less than a small fraction of an inch. But in the production of paper, it is without equal.

In casting, it will give a clear sharp image, hardly possible with most other fibers. For color, natural snowy whiteness of linter is most desirable. Few if any other fibers is able to get such pure results when dyed. Linter is durable, strong and naturally acid free. Cotton linter, (a.k.a. linters, rag, second cut & half stuff),  are different names for a by-product of cotton manufacturing. Linter is the silky fiber that remains on the cotton seeds after ginning.  This fiber is eventually removed, baled and later may be processed for a number of different and important uses.  It is generally available in fluff, sheets and shred. Linter is not all the same and may or may not be slightly to greatly different due to the amount of processing done before it is offered for use. Cotton linter is of great value in the manufacture of fine quality, strong, long-lasting, acid free paper.  Handmade papermakers find great benefit in using cotton linter, either alone or combined with other natural and recycled materials when processing their own pulp.

It adds great strength, substance and texture to the paper. And yields highly desirable results when used in all forms of the handmade paper arts. My personal favor way to buy, and save for future use is confetti cut, highly compressed, snowy white cotton linter. It is so compressed that a single tablespoon full of it in a blender of water will produce 2 full cups of flurry linter pulp in less than a minute. It can then be poured into a slurry vat where it can be used alone, or mixed with other fibers. Cotton linter is such an outstanding addition to the slurry that as little as 10% cotton linter to 90% recycled computer paper will make a very high quality, strong and beautiful paper for all sorts of papermaking uses. The single largest mistake people make when using the confetti cut, compressed linter is using too much in their blender. Just a single tablespoon full with lots of water and a good tight lid in place, is the formula for a perfect batch of pulp. Started of at a very low speed, then slowly increased to be run for maybe a minute, will do the job.

Thank you for reading my cotton linter guide. Enjoy the process!