You Can Turn Woodshop Scraps Into Hardwood Combs

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If you don't have any woodshop scraps — or you really get excited about making combs and decide to go into this mini-business in a big way — you can always buy your raw materials from the local lumber dealer. You'll find that the cost per comb (even when you pay full retail for wood) comes out quite low: anything from a few pennies to, at most, about 80¢. Which is not bad, since you can resell those same hunks of wood for a few dollars each after you've finished with them.

Mark and Cut the Teeth

When you're ready to begin, select a hardwood scrap and pencil in a line to mark the end of the saw cut(s) for the teeth. This line can be curved, straight, angled or whatever shape pleases you. In any case, it should be made across the wood's grain and about halfway "up" the piece of wood.

Now comes the somewhat delicate operation of cutting the comb's teeth. If you have a table saw, use a blade that'll give you a cut 1/8-inch wide and set the blade so that it cuts all the way through the wood. Brace the wood against the fence and make your first cut about 1/2-inch in from one end of the scrap (saw right up to the penciled mark). Next, move the block over 1/8-inch and make another cut. (I've gotten good results just eyeballing the spacing of the teeth, but you can measure or use a guide if you like.) Continue to cut teeth across the entire block — leaving 1/8-inch slits between 1/8-inch teeth — until you come to within 1/2-inch of the scrap's other edge.

At this point, flip the comb over and carefully let the saw's blade retrace (and extend by 1/4-inch) each cut. This will produce the identical saw angle and design on each side of the comb. (Note: If you're using a handsaw and miter box, this recutting is unnecessary.)

Shape the Comb's Handle

Now it's time to shape the comb's handle. First, on both sides of the comb ,outline the handle's intended final outline. (There's no need for fancy French curves here. To lay out the semicircular comb shown in the accompanying photos, I merely traced around a large roll of masking tape.) Be playful. Experiment. Try numerous designs before you settle on the one that suits you best.

OK. Saw and/or sand the comb as necessary to work it down to the shape you want. If you're using a belt sander, you can sand away the corners of the handle quickly with coarse sandpaper, then fine-sand it from there. A band saw or coping saw will speed the roughing-out process if you don't have access to a power sander.

A Few Pointers

Before you go any further, you'll want to sand your comb's teeth until they taper to a point. Otherwise, you'll have a comb that (viewed from above) is exactly the shape you want, but which (viewed from the side) is uniformly 3/8- or 1/2-inch (or whatever) thick. And that kind of comb is still no comb at all!

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