Picture top left, shows the tail of the slip from the previous page, where you have sanded away half the thickness up to the lower 1/4" line.
Now place the slip with its shiny curved surface upwards onto your sanding cylinder or something with the same diameter and using a small triangular needle file, cut through the shiny outer layer of the slips slightly before you do the final cutting in half with a sharp blade, removing some of the harder outer surface first helps to prevents the cane from splitting,
In the picture I'm using a cut throat razor, but a Stanley or craft knife will do the job just as well, and with an even downward rocking motion across the slip cut through the cane, again try not to do this too quickly or you could break/split the cane, see picture top right.
Place each half of the slip, shiny curved surface upwards, on a piece of 240 grit or finer sandpaper and very gently sand each half, left/right 4 times only, this helps to form a tiny ledge along the edges when the two half's are fitted together, see picture middle left.
Now place to two half's against each other and carefully bind them together over the top 3/4" or so, the sides should be level and closed, see picture middle right.
When you have done this, both tails should exactly mirror each other, if not you can match them up by rubbing their edges together upon the sanding block, if you do not do this, the head can twist out of line when it is tied onto the staple, and leak at the edges, rendering the reed useless.
Also dress away some of the thickness around the dotted areas on the tails, this makes the edges of the tails more pliable, it helps them to form around the staple, prevents the cane from splitting easily when you are tying the head onto the staple. see pictures bottom left/right.
Picture bottom left shows an end view of the aperture, the next stage of the program, deals with making the staple and the fitting of the reed head.
