These parts of the process having been done and the glue dried sufficiently, the under surface is levelled all round as a continuation of the under part of the old border.
The table, therefore, can now be laid flat, and should fit well on to the ribs and linings as it did before the fracture. James now has recourse to the advice of his chief as to the best course to pursue.
"Shall I trace the other side, sir, and mark it down on the fresh wood so as to make it balance?"
"Certainly not," answers his chief, "this is what you must do. Lay the table on the ribs as if you were about to glue it down, you can let it be held in position by a couple of screw-cramps, then, with a lead pencil, take as a guide the ribs, holding it so that a mark can be made all round representing the projection of the new edging. A short piece of a pencil laid flat against the ribs and moved round, would perhaps be the most convenient."
James proceeds dutifully to work, marks the edging, and then, after removing the screw-cramps, roughly hews away the wood to near the line.
Much care and more delicate manipulation has to be exercised now, or the precaution of the pencil line will prove to be next to useless.
Files of different degrees of tooth are employed until quite an even contour is obtained and a precise line, the continuation of the pattern, is seen.
The next proceeding will be to mark the thickness of the edging all round. For this purpose a cut line is better than a mere mark, as the cutting up to it is easier and safer. The purfling tool may be regulated and adapted in this case, after which the table will be laid flat, carefully considered, and the more detailed gouging commenced. A small pair of calipers will prove handy for measuring the depth of the channelling of the original parts and gouging down carefully until a corresponding modelling has been effected.
If the original work is sharply defined and a distinctly shaped border is present, then the work must be proceeded with as in the instance of making a new copy of a violin.
Some little difficulty may appear when the question of matching the purfling arises. The assistant opens a drawer close by, selects a likely piece, compares it with that on the violin, and then shows it to his chief, who examines it in a similar manner. "Yes," he says, "I think that is sufficiently like, in fact, it will not be possible to get nearer, it is a bit of that old stuff, is it not, that we have kept by for an emergency? Have you got the groove cleanly cut and routed out?"