Abstract: Method for the manufacture of a self-supporting test field material of very small layer thickness. In a strip of test material (1) comprising an open-pored fibre structure a reagent film mass (6) is embedded from an application side (1a) in such a way that it extensively penetrates into the pores of the carrier material. The reagent film mass (6) is smoothed on the opposite side (1b) by the relative motion of the ribbon and a smoothing tool (4) in such a way that the pores of the composite fibre structure are spanned by the reagent film mass (6). Finally, the carrier material ribbon (10) thus produced is dried essentially free of contact.