For making battery electrodes, a composite strip of a cast ribbon of an electrically conductive metal attached to and extending along an edge of a web of electrically conductive carbon fiber material, also called a carbon felt in some examples, with a plurality of spaced apart notches cast in the ribbon and opening to an edge of the ribbon spaced from the carbon fiber material. A rotatable drum with a mold cavity and a confronting casting shoe for supplying molten metal, such as liquid lead, to the cavity may be used in a casting machine to continuous cast the composite strip.