A professional who tends machine that opens cloth to full width after cloth is processed in rope form: Sews end of cloth to leader, using portable sewing machine, or threads cloth through guides and rollers, over beaters that revolve against direction of cloth to cause cloth to open and over scrimp rail that stretches and smooths cloth.

• Starts machine and observes cloth passing over beaters to ensure cloth is opened to full width.
• Scutcher is usually in tandem with other machines, such as vacuum extractor, mangle, or detacker.