The horn comb arrived with a sticky feel to it, what is this and how do I clean it off?

You're lucky, your comb got an extra-long oil treatment!

Most of the time we wipe the lanolin off before sending them out. We always do a free treatment to help protect your comb, but if it was a very new freshly carved comb, it hadn't had time to sit and was not soaked in. It was used to enrich your comb, to protect it from elements and moisture and is not a problem.

Here is how you can get the excess off yourself:

Take a damp soft towel and gently without twisting, wipe clean before comb's
use.

To do this easily and best, pinch damp towel or facecloth over tines starting at spine, pull outwards away from tines repeatedly using a clean area of the towel or facecloth every time. An old toothbrush nail brush or old natural bristle hair brush will remove the remaing oil from between the tines.

This special type of lanolin protects our horn combs against moisture changes, and to beautify and extend the life of your Longhairs Horn Combs.

Why can you use a damp towel when the comb needs to be kept dry? because the damp towel in this event will never remove 'all' of the sticky or syrupy treatment, eventually the comb will become sensitive to moisture again, but not right away. It is safe to use the damp towel to clean the oil off because water never penetrates this oil when fresh, and the lint will not stick to the comb like as if you used a dry towel. It is the closest to water that these combs can and should get.