The comb is a tool consisting of a long, narrow wooden board, sometimes decorated, with nails (more or less sparse) arranged in a circle or diamond shape at the center. The comb had two holes at the ends, which allowed it to be gripped: generally the comb was placed vertically, fixed to the ground with a foot inserted into one of the two holes, and supported with a hand, inserted into the other hole.
The use of the comb followed that of the malaxer and/or the scotola and was used to remove the last woody residues still present on the textile fibers, remove the short fibers and orient them all in the same direction (combing). The combing took place in several phases, each of which involved the use of a comb with increasingly dense teeth, which gradually determined an increasingly thorough cleaning of the textile fibers. The coarse fiber discarded after the first combing was called capecchio, from which tow was then obtained.