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In either case the parts of the graft near the insertion in the socket and at the other end where the peg-box is fitted will require varnishing down. Before active operations commence a fair examination should be made of the colour or complexion of the body of the violin.
In carving the blocks that are to be used outside the peg-box for evenly distributing the pressure, precautions must be taken not to cut them of equal thickness, or when the pressure is applied, they are likely to slip, particularly when the peg-box diminishes rapidly in width under the volute.
At the end which is intended for the thickest to be inserted in the body of the instrument an equal width each side must be marked. Near the other end, at a distance that shall correspond with the opening of the peg-box, an equal width each side of the line must be marked off as at the other end.
Then I cut off all the sharp outer edges, from the terminal of the back part of the whole to the top of each volute, this cutting to be a good one-sixteenth of an inch broad, neatly filing and sandpapering the same when done. The outer edge of the peg-box is done in like manner.
This being accomplished with great neatness the line of old work and new wood being exactly level, a line may be drawn with a pencil or cut with the point of a knife over the block as a continuation of the inner surfaces of the peg-box. If carefully managed the knife point is preferable, a piece of stiff card or very thin veneer may be cut to the width, bent over and the point run down each side.
Great care has to be taken in the cutting that the sides are equal, otherwise the scroll, when fitted, will look awry. Another yet more secret I have only seen in an Italian grafting, and it may be native; no join whatever is seen in a front view nor in the peg-box if this part is at all soiled or dusty, as is usually the case.
When all the surfaces have been carefully pared down until, as regards thickness and evenness of line and surface, the peg-box is just as it left the hands of the original maker, there will remain to be done the clearing of the wood at each of the peg-holes which will have been covered by the block perhaps wholly or more than half way.
Then, allowing full three-sixteenths of an inch for cheeks of peg-box, I draw two lines, one on either side of centre line, from end of wood to head, so that I just shall catch outer side of each cheek of peg-box that is to be, and which, running on to where crosses the nose of the scroll, gives a width there of bare nine-sixteenths of an inch.
Scrolls of masterly design and execution are frequently met with mounted on a peg-box, selected or carved, without the least reference to the style of the original, imparting to the whole a hideously mixed and vulgar aspect.
This treatment is to be avoided if possible, as it is accompanied by a more or less disfigurement of the "cheeks" of the peg-box, and at the best is uncertain. A much more sure and neat method is, in the first place to clear all dirt and grease away possible, and gently work some clean water into the crack, repeatedly wiping with a clean cloth.
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