The Cast-Back Curry Comb: Iron Run Around Toothed Plates Held in a Notched Bar

"In my improved method of making curry combs the teeth are cut in a series of sheet iron plates, which are arranged in a mold together with an iron spike to be driven into a wooden handle, and the back and ferrule cast on to secure the whole together and complete the comb." "The cope is made with a cross-bar, h, having slots or notches i cut into it from its under edge, and corresponding with grooves j, made in the face d of the plate a." "These notches and grooves hold the comb plates l in proper position, and then the cope is rammed full of sand, thus taking the impression of the face d of the plate a, and at the same time securing the comb-plates in the sand."

**Plates.** From 0.8 mm mild steel sheet cut six strips 9 × 2.5 cm with tin snips. Along one long edge snip V-notches 3 mm deep every 3 mm and file the teeth even. Along the other edge cut two tabs 5 mm deep that widen toward their ends, like dovetails. **Pattern and bar.** Saw a hardwood pattern 11 × 9 cm and 8 mm thick for the back. Across one face saw six kerfs 5 mm deep and 15 mm apart, so a plate's tabs stand in each. Build a two-part flask from oak board. Across the top of the cope fix a hardwood cross-bar with six notches cut up from its under edge, right above the kerfs. **Ram.** Sieve and temper the sand. Lay the pattern kerfed face down on a board, set the drag over it and ram it full, then turn it over so the kerfs face up. Stand the plates teeth up with their tabs in the kerfs. Dust with talc, set the cope on so each plate stands in its notch, and ram it full. Lift the cope: the plates come away held in its sand. Draw the pattern. Lay a 6 mm steel rod bent at one end in a groove cut from the cavity out through a hole in the drag frame, as the handle spike. Cut a sprue, a riser and vents, and close the flask. **Pour.** Weigh out the pewter from the notebook. Melt it in the crucible with the torch, skim it, and pour once, steadily, until the riser stands full. When it has cooled, break it out, saw off the sprue and riser, and try to pull each plate out with pliers. Drill a hardwood handle a little under the spike's size and drive it on.

**James M. Gardner** of Troy, Rensselaer County, New York, received US 7,986, dated 18 March 1851. His pattern plate a had one face b formed like the back of the comb and the other, d, like its under face, with grooves j opposite the ribs k. The plate was rammed face b upward in the nowel, which was turned over, and the cope e was set on with dowel pins f and g. After ramming, the cope came away with the plates; an iron chill or core n with an iron spike o went into the cavity p, the spike pushing out through a hole in the side of the nowel; and molten iron cast the back onto the sheet-iron plates and the ferrule q onto the spike, the chill forming the inside of the ferrule, which binds the wood of the handle r when it is driven on. His claim covers the notched bar with the cope of a two-part flask, holding the plates during the process. **Honest limits.** Pewter stands in for cast iron, and the back is plain, without Gardner's ribs, ferrule or chill; a pewter back is softer than his. The notebook takes the back as a plain slab; its sizes and allowance are examples. Whether your plates hold is the result.