This must be fastened to the forward end of the backbone. The best and lightest way is to braze it, as the tinsmiths call it. File the polish from the end of the needle, and wet it with soldering fluid, which may be bought at a tinner’s, or made by adding zinc to muriatic acid until no more is dissolved. Slip on the brass support just where you want it, and lay on a piece of solder about half the size of a grain of wheat. Now hold this in the flame of a candle, in the gas, or near a hot stove, until the solder melts. Take it away and let it cool, and you will find that the solder has run into all the cracks and joined the pieces beautifully. File off any excess of solder or rough ends, and you will have a neat and workman-like joint, as well as a very light one.
Cut out the piece No. 3, and bend it into the shape shown at No. 4. In this case you will need to file the upper surface of the groove bright and clean. Take off the polish from the other end of the needle, and then put the stern-post, as it may be called, in place, and hold it there by twisting a fine wire around it and the needle. Be careful to get both supports turned the same way. Then braze and finish it as before.
Make the piece No. 5, and form it into the shape No. 6. This is fastened by brazing to the backbone, as shown in the lower diagram. Take a piece of another knitting-needle, and make a shaft like No. 7 by heating red-hot and pounding the end into a hook with a small hammer.
Put the straight end of this shaft through the hole in the stern-post which was formed by bending the metal, and then make a shoulder on it, as follows: bend a piece of fine wire into a ring the size of the needle, and braze this to the shaft about a quarter-inch from the stern-post. This ring of wire keeps the shaft from slipping through the hole when the rubber is stretched. File a flat point on the straight end of the shaft.
Next make the wings. For the ribs I used the thin bamboo strips taken from a Japanese fan. The paper is pulled or soaked off, and the thin strips cut close to the handle. The front of the wings is made as in the upper diagram of Fig. 3. Take one of the largest and stiffest strips of the bamboo, find the exact middle, and lay it evenly across the wing-support (No. 6 in Fig. 2), which is already in place on the backbone. Lash it to the support with waxed sewing-silk. Over this piece lay two others of equal length, making them come together (but not lap over) just above the backbone. When well secured, add three pieces of the same length above the two, placing them in such a way that the joinings shall not come over the joinings of either of the other pieces, and thus weaken the wings.