A few weeks ago, I had a stack of frames to wire up and embed with foundation - I HATE wiring frames.
I happened to see a set up a FB friend uses for TB - basically he inserts a bamboo kebab skewer in the centre of the top bar to provide reinforcement to the comb.
As a TB is basically a frame without side or bottom bars, I thought I'd try to make a foundation-less comb in a similar way; I was hoping that by inserting skewers from top to bottom and just fitting 3/4" or so of foundation to the top and placing between already drawn frames, that the bees would make their own comb around the skewers.
The skewers are simply inserted into holes drilled through the top and bottom bars, glued into place and the protruding ends trimmed off with a knife, so it's dead easy.
Well, it didn't work all that well - the bees built off the foundation OK but studiously avoided the skewers, so if anything, it's even weaker than before but no worries, I'll keep the frame for the brood box only (I'm using all-deeps).
However, all wasn't lost - the same FB friend upon seeing my failure remarked that this would be a really good way of making comb for sale as comb honey as it looks more natural and only needs cutting out from the top - so less messy too.
I'm no expert on comb honey, so I don't know but I thought I'd share the idea anyway.
This photo was taken after a week, I looked again 2 weeks ago and they'd finished the combs just a little short of the lower bar of the frame.