The next and most necessary proceeding will be the cleansing of the surfaces that are to be permanently joined. In most instances the application of clean cold water in a sponge will be sufficient, but where much grime and grease have accumulated different means must be resorted to. Soap is not to be recommended but, and especially if the surfaces are irregular, some pure benzine, applied or slightly scrubbed in by a stiff brush, not too large, and the parts then wiped repeatedly on a clean cotton or other absorbent rag. Pure benzine, if not rubbed in too hard or too long, will not injure the adjacent varnish, be it the delicate film on a thousand pound gem of Cremona or the flinty covering of a less presumptuous output from Naples. When evaporation is complete, it will be so in a few minutes, some clean water brushed in and wiped away, will leave the surfaces in a state for receiving glue.
The glue should be of good strength—the junction being intended to be permanent—and applied in a warm atmosphere or the parts warmed a little, as, under different conditions the glue will coagulate or "set" (diagram 18). When the parts are placed properly in position, and the outside blocks or buffers adjusted for opposing pressure, the cramps may be applied and screwed fairly tight. If the surfaces meet well and the pressure is properly distributed, the glue will ooze out at the juncture of the fractured parts. This can be wiped off with a cloth, but occasionally mended parts cannot be got at easily, if so the glue must be rubbed away after cramps and moulds have been removed, by a damp sponge or cloth and then wiped dry. Sometimes differently to the above mentioned simple fracture, it may be of the kind described by surgeons as comminuted or split into small fragments. This will be found to be much more troublesome than the former; after cleansing as usual, if the injured parts are actually separated from the main structure, judgment must be exercised in selecting those portions—the largest if possible—that when glued in, will act as a support for others to be afterwards inserted. The same attention in kind and amount will mostly bring about a satisfactory result, but frequently with this class of fracture minute pieces may have been lost past recovery, leaving a small gap here and there to be filled up somehow. These places, if large enough, should have pieces let in according to the manner before described. If they are too small for this treatment—a little experience will enable the eye to judge at a glance—then the only course will be to fill them up with some kind of paste or improvised mixture. For this purpose a good "stopping" must be made. This has, in olden times as well as the present, been a difficulty to meet. Many kinds of material have been used, most of them having some objectionable quality; some repairers keeping some kind, others generally making further experiments. Among the various materials plaster of Paris or common chalk worked up in glue has been frequently used; it is certainly strong for some time after use, but gradually, as age creeps on, contraction takes place towards the central portion, and a small fissure all round is seen more and more evident, and which gets filled with grime causing a very distinct black line, which draws attention to the spot, the substance also being so much harder than the surrounding wood, gets polished with a little friction and usage and declares its unsympathetic nature; further, it is difficult to colour successfully, or even well, and for these objections it should never be used. Wax is another material that has been extensively in use among the older English repairers, but it has very little to recommend it except handiness, and that quality ought not to be placed in the balance against much more important ones. It is not easily colourable; with usage the top surface gets wiped off, leaving a hollow. Powdered wood with shellac, or the latter with some heterogeneous materials have also failed, as the alcoholic solution destroys the surrounding varnish.
| DIAGRAM 18. |
Sealing wax has also in turn been used with no better result. Other substances are met with whose precise nature is not known, odd mixtures made up in a hurry at the moment of requirement, but no material or mixture has been found to excel that made with wood and glue. Many, perhaps the majority of instances in which this has been used, have also been failures; not from any inherent defect in the substance, but from lack of proper management. Different varieties of wood have been tried, a great drawback being the contraction when the glue dries; this is markedly the case when a hard wood, powdered by glass-paper, is used. The granulations and their hardness are also objectionable, and if ground up too small, contraction to a greater degree takes place, and the repairer's object is defeated. Long experience has shown that the disintegrated fibres of soft pine, not powdered, offer the best security against contraction, it can be made strong or weak according to the thickness of glue used, is always at hand, and on the whole gives the least trouble. It requires little or no colouring, and moreover approaches nearest in character—or can be made to do so—to the surrounding material. If there is a selection possible, the well known soft grained American pine should in preference be used. There is a good and a bad way of managing the process to ensue. To roughly seize a chump of wood and begin filing it away anyhow, collecting the residue and making a rough paste, will bring disappointment, as sure as houses built with wrongly mixed mortar. To put method into the matter, a piece of clear, knotless, soft, grained wood should be obtained and cut to a cylindrical form (diagram 19). A flat file of rather fine texture—this may be according to the size of the instrument to be repaired—should be worked against it at right angles. The file (not glass or sand-paper) must not be of the toothed kind, but grooved. The shower of particles sent off during the action of filing, will consist of a number of minute silky fibres, which, of course, must be collected together, placed upon a clean porcelain dish, or palette, and worked up with glue—strong—for filling spaces in the maple, and weaker, if used for the pine of the front table. It can be tucked into the crevices as required by the end of a small, worn, or pointed knife. Some portions will remain above the surface and, in fact, will not go in completely, owing to the fibrous, or threadiness of the mass, but this constitution is the safeguard against its contraction, the glue in drying clinging round the fibres instead of to itself. When dry and hard the projecting portions can be neatly levelled off. If, as will sometimes happen, a little hole or two can be perceived, perhaps under magnifying power, the process can be repeated on a minute scale. By attention to the above there will be but small risk of contraction, and if cleanly done there will not be much trouble in colouring the part to match the surroundings.
| DIAGRAM 19. |
We can now advance another step and notice a frequently occurring fracture that is caused by the constant pressure and tuning up of the A peg, at a part which in many violins, owing to the peculiarity of design, is a very weak one, the grain of the wood above the peg being short and liable to overstraining by impetuous performers. Being one of the most inconvenient positions on the instrument for working upon, if the repairing is not effected in a methodical manner, it is nearly certain to come undone again. The crack is more often than not unperceived for a considerable time by the performer, and meanwhile grease and dirt work their way secretly into the pores of the wood. A repairer may take a glance at the state of the fracture, whip out some glue, paint a little on each side, wriggle the whole well at the risk of extending the wound, get in a little more glue, and let that harden under pressure from the cramps, which—unless extraordinary care and skill is exercised, damage other portions of the work—replace the peg and send the instrument home again apparently as sound as new (diagram 20). This treatment, if resorted to immediately after a sudden and clean fracture, may be effectual for some time, but if, as above mentioned, it has begun secretly and enlarged by degrees, the kind of repairing described will serve but a few turns of the peg, when crack it goes once more. Off to the fiddle hospital again, where it may be possibly subjected to a repetition of the treatment, especially if the owner is of an economical turn of mind as regards "bill of costs."
| DIAGRAM 20. |
Under the above circumstances of combined age and dirt, some repairers would dare to increase the fracture or pull the scroll quite off in order to get at the part, cleaning it well before glueing it on again. This is making things worse, particularly as this part of the violin is one of the most awkward at which to apply direct strong pressure on a good and neat junction.
Sometimes the first mode is resorted to with the addition of what is called bushing the peg-hole, that is, after the glueing performance has been gone through, it will last strong enough while the hole is being enlarged, a cylindrical plug of wood being inserted, and glued. This is levelled down and re-bored, to suit the peg or a fresh smaller one. 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. When sufficiently done, some strong glue may be worked in, in like manner, cramps and pads applied and the parts brought neatly in contact.
When the glue is thoroughly hard and dry, on the inside of the peg box extending each side of the crack and beyond the peg hole, a space must be cut away having straight sharp sides to the depth of about 1/16 of an inch, perhaps a trifle less. It must be done with keen edged chisels—size according to requirement—and the walls made as even as a piece of plate glass. Sometimes, in consequence of the shortness of the peg box, it will be necessary to make the cut away space extend further upward, and into the solid part. In all instances it will test the mechanical dexterity and patience for cutting in confined spaces. When this has been accomplished to satisfaction, a piece of maple without curl or knot must be cut a little thicker than what has been removed, but as to superficial area, fitting to a hair's breadth if skill will allow.