HI Jeff,

A better description of the break would help (or a picture). It would also show us how the original combing was built.

I think there are 5 basic steps.

1) Clean up the wound, get any loose material out. This will involve taking a saw to the combing. Dependign on the damage, it may be a small section or two, or removing most of the combing.

2) Strengthen the remaining material, This may mean injecting epoxy into cracks, and the like using a syringe. If you remove enough material in step one, this step may not be nessesary.

3) replace the missing wood. cut and machine wood to replace the missing material. Try and get the same type of wood, with a simillar colouring, however remember that wood will darken a bit when covered with Epoxy. Maybe tyr some test panels to make sure you have a good match. The wood is then glued into place, I'd use epoxy again, perhaps some 5-minute epoxy (and in step 2).

4) Protect and strengthen the new wood. This inovles getting fiberglass cloth, and wraping the fixed area. Cut a piece of cloth to fit the area, and extend over into the good portion around the patch. Then sand around the patch including the area that will be covered by the overlaping cloth. Spread epoxy on to the area to be patched, place the glass over the wet epoxy, and smooth/press it down so the epoxy absorbs into the glass and holds it down. At this point you may have to use a brush and put a bit more on, if the epoxy is not wetting out the glass (it should go clear). Wait the time required for the epoxy to partially dry, and then brush on a second coat. The epoxy used in this step should not be the 5 minute epoxy, but rather the normal stuff mentioned on this board (West, Raka, East, MAS, sys-3, are often mentioned)

Finally varnish over the wood with UV protectant varnish. This protects the Epoxy from the Sun.

Sounds like alot of work, but not really.

This is a pretty general answer, but it should be a reasonable starting point for the discussion.

good luck

Myrl