PURPOSE: To manufacture a honeycomb body in which the quantity of the expensive heat- resistant thin thickness steel sheet to be used is reduced by forming one of a flat-sheetlike band material and a corrugated sheetlike band material of two or more plural strip materials having a narrower width than that of the other band material at the time of manufacturing the honeycomb body for carrying an automobile exhaust gas purifying catalyst.

CONSTITUTION: This honeycomb body H is manufactured by winding the corrugated-sheetlike band material 2 having a prescribed width W1 and the flat-sheetlike band material 1 formed from e.g. four strip materials 11, 12,..., each of which have a prescribed width W2 and every adjacent two of which are arranged at a prescribed interval around an axis to form a wound body. At this time, the width W2 of each of the strip materials 11, 12,... to the width W1 of the honeycomb body H is set so as to meet e.g. the following relational expression: (1/10)W1≤W2<(1/2)W1. Also, the space between every adjacent two of the strip materials is set to a desired value, generally to a value within the range of 2 to 50mm. The corrugated- sheetlike band material 2 which has a corrugated-sheetlike shape having 3.0mm pitch width and 1.4mm corrugation height is formed by passing e.g. a flat-sheetlike band material consisting of a thin steel band, that is made of a heat-resistant steel having a composition of (20% Cr)-(15% Al)-(0.02% Ce)-(the balance Fe) and has 0.04mm thickness and 70mm width, through the space between forming gears.