Tooth-comb

The expression “search with a fine tooth comb” is often incorrectly punctuated as “fine-tooth comb”. In fact, it should be “fine tooth-comb”. 

The tooth-comb was an early alternative to the tooth-brush and a forerunner of dental floss, looking something like a toothpick with a single row of bristles along it, which was passed between the teeth. The body could be made of pliable green wood or fish bone and the bristles were usually badger or horse hair. 

The intricate work required to whittle and thread a tooth-comb meant that they were prohibitively expensive to all but the very wealthy. London jeweller Joshua Wolsey made particularly fine tooth-combs, sometimes of lead, studded with gem stones. 

Their use were popular at the start of the 17th century but they were frowned upon by Cromwell as a decadent extravagance and had died out by the time of the Great Fire of London (1666), where Wolsey’s celebrated jewellery shop was one of the notable casualties. The expression appears to be a mutation of a line from the diary of Samuel Pepys, where he writes of “searching for a fine tooth-comb” in London in 1669 and bewails their rarity.