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Horn is a natural material with which craftsmen have worked since the beginning of time ; although, nowadays, they are assisted by certain machines, a vast number of operations are still carried out entirely by hand.
Creation of a horn comb
horn comb No less than 17 operations are required to create a horn comb, all of which include thousands of precise movements.
   
 
Manufacture of salad servers
   
  Depending on the shape of the horn, a single, more precise salad server model can be created. It can be sawn freehand.
 
Creation of a horn comb
No less than 17 operations are required to create a horn comb, all of which include thousands of precise movements.

Sorting, sawing, biscayage, flattening, marking, trimming, shaping, squaring, stadage, smoothing, sharpening, pearl beading, beading and shaping the back of the comb, sanding and polishing mean that this trade constitutes a highly-developed craft rather than a small industry.

The odour you can smell is that of the heated (but not burnt) horn, the sole raw material of the La Licorne workshop.
The horn, which comes from South America and Africa, is imported and dried ; the bone it contains is removed and it is then ready to undergo the various manufacturing stages :

  • The horn is sorted prior to being sawn. The sawyer’s main qualities are his visual and fingering skills, which are used to discard any horns with serious flaws. He then cuts the horn into 4 sections, each of which has a highly specific purpose :

    1. the tip is used to make lathed objects such as shaving brushes and razors
    2. the biscage or hollow is used to manufacture combs
    3. the fine throat from the base is used in the making of fine combs and nit combs
    4. the waste, located under the throat, is crushed and transformed into fertiliser. Horn with 12 to 16% nitrogen is an excellent natural fertiliser.
  • Biscayage is the most spectacular operation in the horn comb-making process.
    This technique entails opening out the biscage or hollow ; it is used to create a larger sheet, called a shoe, because of its shape. The horn is heated in the upper level of a brick kiln, the biscayeur seated in front of the fire, extracting the biscage at the correct temperature. Beating it with a pruning knife requires exceptional skill and strength, and the craftsman is able to recognise by its sound whether or not it is ready to be opened out. He rests firmly against the wooden pole on his bench and drives his sharp knife into the thickest section, bringing it down in a spiral through the heat-softened horn. Using a large pair of tongs, he then takes hold of the notched biscage and offers it to the flame, where he reheats it without burning.
  • Flattening
    Using a small pair of tongs, he opens the biscage and flattens it roughly with the large tongs, subjects it once again to the fire, and finally slides it between the two plates of the press, in which there is a flow of cold water, thereby simultaneously flattening and cooling the biscage which has now become a shoe.
    The biscayeur has the most difficult task in this profession. It is a job that requires strength, skill and stamina. This extremely strenuous technique was abandoned by the La Licorne workshop in 1997.
    Nowadays, the hollow is sawn lengthwise, heated in an oil-bath and then flattened in a press prior to cooling.
  • Marking
    Rough sketches of combs are drawn on the newly- obtained shoe – 1, 2 or 3 depending on the size of the sheet. This marking operation is carried out using wooden templates and a stylet called a régadou, a tool made from a small piece of wood with a sharp spike in the base. Close attention is required to detect the natural faults in the horn.
  • Trimming
    An impressive circular saw skims over the teeth of the trimmer, which cuts the marked sheet into horn strips to the defined shape.
  • Shaping
    These strips are smoothed off and the edge from which the comb teeth will be cut is made thinner.
  • Squarring
    This operation entails shaping the outline of the comb using a grinding wheel guided on a template. Once squared, the comb has adopted its final shape.
  • Large and fine teething
    These two operations provide the comb with its genuine definition. Using a machine called an « stadda » (or tooth machine), which appeared in England between 1855 and 1865, the large teeth and the fine teeth are created automatically, although before the invention of this machine, they were created individually… by hand !
  • Smoothing
    This stage entails removing the roughness of the comb’s surface with a soft millstone and planishing the comb, i.e. providing it with a smooth surface.
  • Sharpening and pearl-beading
    This operation is carried out using a small grinder with a fluted end, to ensure that the teeth are rounded on all sides. To avoid tearing the hair when combing, the upper section of the teeth are sometimes rounded, also with the aid of a fluted grinder, but with larger spacers.
    The comb has now adopted its generally recognised shape, but it is not yet complete.
  • Beading
    To create a finer shape in certain models, the back of the comb is thinned down to a narrow width using a smooth, narrow grinder.
  • Back shaping
    A grinder comprising throats of differing widths is used round off the back of the comb.
  • Sanding
    There are two ways of sanding combs:
    1. By hand, supporting the pumice-coated comb against a moist cloth pad
    2. By putting the combs in a barrel containing wooden cubes and a pumice-based preparation.
  • Polishing
    This is the final operation. This will give the horn its lustre and enhance the colours. As with sanding, there are two possible ways of carrying out this operation :
    1. By hand, by supporting the comb on a pad pre-coated in polish
    2. By leaving the combs for 24 hours in a barrel, filled with wooden cubes coated in a special polishing preparation.
Finally, the combs are sorted, classified, marked either as « genuine horn » or with the client’s mark, packed and dispatched… ultimately to go on and fulfil their fundamental role of creating some sort of order in people’s hair...
Manufacturing a salad server

After separating the tip of the horn by sawing, the remaining part, called the « hollow », is sawn lengthwise to create two sections.

These sections are then heated, in order to be softened and prepared for extensive flattening. After a few seconds in the press, the horn emerges in the form of a sheet or plate, on which we can then outline the salad server. Depending on the length, width and thickness of the sheet, a single and extremely precise server model can be shaped.

Once the model has been defined and drawn, it is sawn freehand.

Finally, to break the nerve of the horn, it is subjected to a pressure level of 100 tonnes, under a hydraulic press, with heat treatment, thereby ensuring the material is less sensitive to hygrometry and temperature variations.
The cleaning operations then begin. The server, which is still sketchy in form, starts to become more refined, under the fingers of the shaper.

The large spoon and fork can then be rounded. This requires heating the ends of the servers and subjecting them to a mould which provides them with the desired shape.

The servers are then returned to the shaper, for the final operations, sanding and polishing, which provide them with their sheen and enhance their colours.