f the instrument, the junction or insertion of
the neck or graft sometimes gets loose, from bad fitting chiefly, bad
glue or prolonged exposure to damp. When the sides or back part give
warning that they are likely to part, they should be loosened still
more or separated and a little clean water on a brush inserted in the
cleft where discoverable, the parts being pressed and worked together
until clean, for all cracked or loosened joints will be found more or
less dirty and greasy. Some strong glue can be then worked in, both
sides pressed together by cramps and left to dry. The backing of a flat
piece of soft wood with an interleaving of stout paper or, better still,
millboard, must not be forgotten. If, as sometimes happens, the
flooring of the peg-box threatens to part from the graft in contact,
the same course of working out dirt and inserting good glue must be
pursued. In pressing the back or shell of the scroll, this being of
short and sometimes abrupt hollowing, the pressure on the substance
of the wood direct would be dangerous to its form. The fibres of the
wood at the edge are necessarily very short and brittle. A thick piece
of cork should, therefore, be placed between the cramp and the hollow
grooving or shell, a small block of moderately hard wood being placed
inside the peg-box as an opposing pad or buffer, the cramp may then
be screwed down fairly tight. The two operations, glueing and pressing
the side parts and that in connection with the shell, must not be
attempted simultaneously.

We may now, being on the part as it were, take up the subject of grafting
and the different and best means of performing this somewhat exacting
operation. Accurate calculation and sharp straight cutting are
absolutely necessary for even moderate success in this undertaking.
As before mentioned, there is more than one method of securing a neck
to an old head. Each one carried out with the necessary skill and
neatness can be made a lasting and highly finished piece of joinery.
The mode adopted in England (see diagram 25) is the most ready and gives
the least difficulty in a difficult undertaking. The solid end of the
graft is chiselled or planed off to a slightly wedged form with a
straight or square upper end which is measured to reach when inserted,
nearly or just up to the lowest of the upper two peg-holes. Great care
has to be taken in the cutting that the sides are equal, otherwise the
scroll, when fitted, will look awry