The next proceeding will be to level down the projecting parts of the block in front, to the line of the throat. 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. The advantage of the knife line is that you have already a cut to work up to. After this the chiseling out or mortising can be proceeded with. The tool must be very keen edged, and as the cutting has in great part to be done against the grain, no violence must be exercised; rapidity will only come with regularity in taking off thin shavings. 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. In the case of the double fracture this will be found to be in the same condition on both sides. The hole will require continuing through the fresh wood, in fact re-boring so far as this is concerned. It will be a more or less delicate operation to prevent splitting the wood, especially if from shaving down to the surrounding levels, it is not very stout.
To guard against catastrophy, a small hole should be bored exactly in the centre. Particular attention must be paid to this, or the whole work may be spoilt and a fresh block or bushing of the hole be found necessary, and much of your work to be done again. The small hole may be drilled if you have the necessary means at hand, if not a small brad-awl may be used, not of the usual round kind, but square. Such brad-awls are, I believe, known as chairmender's brad-awls. If one cannot be obtained, an ordinary round one can, with a little trouble, be filed square. The advantage of this form of awl is that it does not split the wood and can be used with safety and certainty where one of the ordinary pattern would be certain to split and spoil the work. Several sizes may be used to enlarge the aperture, the square edges breaking away the sides without causing an extended crack in the direction of the grain. When sufficiently enlarged, recourse may be had to the rat-tailed or circular file. Here again much care must be taken, as the toothing of the file is arranged somewhat in the fashion of a screw, and if the tool is used one way it soon buries itself, becomes tightly wedged and will inevitably split the surrounding wood. It must therefore be turned in a direction that may be called backward, the revolutions to the left instead of to the right. It will take a little more time than might be expected, but the result will be more satisfactory, free from danger of splitting and the interior surface of the hole be made smooth. The use of one, a degree or two finer in tooth will give enough finish. A constant look out must be kept that the tool is working properly in the centre; should it be found working a little too much to one side, it must be removed and the opposite part gently cut away by a slender sharp knife so that the equality may be restored.