McGrath,

The ex-London School of Furniture should still be running an instrument-making repair course as far as I know which could include evening courses. Another one that was good and which I studied at back in the early 80s was at Merton Technical College but I don't know if that is still going and anyway it's a long way from Harlow.

Any chance of a close-up photo of the back of the manolin by email? I've done one or two similar repairs and it sounds perfectly feasible to make a good repair on your mandolin from what you've described.

Normally the glue on a mandolin of this vintage (like Arbuthnot I think it might be of Framus or Hofner origin -nothing wrong with that as they made some good instruments in their time) will be hide glue. That can readily be freed by gently easing a heated, thin-bladed knife (an old thin bladed table knife will do nicely)between the parts to be freed.

You could complete the repair without a mould but this would be tricky in the extreme. I would agree with Spaw that a mould of some sort would make things easier. You could make a solid one by sanding down a suitable sized piece of soft wood, e.g. deal, to the correct curvature and profile or perhaps an easier way would be to construct a frame the same dimensions as the back. You could do this by pencilling an outline round the sides of the mandolin once the back is removed and then using small blocks spaced regularly and glued to a base to retain the edges of the back components.

Next glue in a block of the right height centrally, with a slightly curved upped surface to mirror the curve in the back. You than have a basic mould on which to piece together the back. I would recommend numbering the inside surfaces of the "triangular pieces" so you know which order they go in as things will often get mixed up on the workbench.

Use hot hide glue (wonderful smell as you warm it up (in a water bath!) on the kitchen stove as it is more forgiving and easier to loosen if you make a mistake. The trickiest bit might well be replacing the thin pieces of black veneer and patience will be at a premium here.

Being domed, the finished back will have inherent mechanical strength but, if necessary, the joints could be reinforced internally with thin strips of veneer or even canvas (a la Neapolitan mandolin).

These are just some initial ideas based on experience with "one-off" repairs (where you often need a bit of lateral thinking and creativity!) and the fact that you won't have "professional" repairers' equipment to hand, and also bearing in mind I haven't seen the mandolin. I'm pretty sure however that with care and patience you would be able to effect a more than passable and aesthetically pleasing repair.

Good luck

mooman