Make a vertical incision cut about half inch longer than the splice you made on the scionwood. I did this by pushing the blunt edge of the knife blade with my thumb, sorry can't show that part, must take picture too, and I only have two hands. This vertical cut is about 2-1/2" long.

Now lift or open both flaps of the bark using the bread knife. The blunt edge of this knife won't damage the cambiums on the destination limb unlike using the sharp pointed knife which can damage the bark also.

And here's the well prepared destination branch, ready for scionwood insertion.

Start inserting the previously prepared scionwood, insert it just under the flap and press it against the bark while pushing downward. Sometimes you will have to use your thumb at the pointed tapered end of the scionwood and press it against the bark while sliding down, so that it will not slide outside of the bark flap.

Almost done inserting the scionwood. It is important that the part of the scionwood that is inserted should remain under the bark flaps.

Stop sliding down the scionwood when the upper end or edge of the splice is at level with the cut of the branch. In the picture below, I will push it a wee bit more downward.

Now cut out about a foot of parafilm grafting tape.

Then wrap the union. My rule of thumb is to always start from the lower end going upwards when wrapping with grafting tape. Make sure the unused portion of vertical incision is covered, sometimes we can make the vertical incision much longer than needed, so make sure they are covered to prevent contamination.

Wrap completely, including the cut part of the branch, everything must be sealed with at least one layer of parafilm tape. This is to prevent dirt contamination and diseases. Parafilm lets oxygen move in and out, as well as carbon dioxide but not water and dirt. The parafilm is also stretchable and so easy to wrap the end of the bark. Simply press hard the end of the tape unto any part that has a parafilm tape and they will stick together forming a nice seal.

Parafilm grafting tape, however, is not that strong and becomes brittle and fall off before we have a strong union. We need really good reinforcements, something that is stretchable and will also deteriorate with time. The cheapest and easiest one to tie is rubber band. When wrapping the rubber band, stretch it to 50% to 100% more than its original length and do not exceed this stretching recommendation, otherwise it is not good for the plant. When wrapping rubber band, always start from the top going, spiraling down.

Very important detail for those who haven't tied a strand of rubber band. Take note that during the last two wraps, I wrap one loop at the end of my finger, and then the end of the rubber band, I place it under the trapped finger. You will have to simply slide off that rubber band over your finger to trap the end of the rubber band.

Notice that the rubber band do not overlap, it is not needed to be overlapping because we have a better seal beneath it using the parafilm tape. The rubber band serves as reinforcement only and not as a sealant like other grafters do. Rubber bands when used as sealant can attract dirt and even adsorb some moisture as it cracks, so it is not a reliable sealant, but a very good grafting reinforcement nonetheless. Perhaps, intentionally leaving some gaps between the spiral loops of the rubber band is beneficial to let some light in to prevent development of fungal diseases.

Take note that the end of the rubber band is under the second to the last loop using our finger trick. This frees up your hand. I used to make my own slingshots so I can tie a rubber band along a stem while holding a camera to take picture. But I have to admit, the taking the picture part is truly more difficult than making slingshots.

Nonetheless, we have a very strong bark graft, that hurricane Katrina may knock down the whole tree but not our graft.

Next take out 2 ft long strand of grating tape this time to wrap at least 3 layers of grafting tape to protect our rubber band from UV damage and also to wrap the scionwood to preserve moisture. When wrapping with a tape, it should always be spiraling upwards, the reason is that it will not trap water, it will be like how roof tiles are layered over each other.

After securing at least 3 layers of grafting tape over the rubber band, continue upwards, wrapping the scionwood. When wrapping the scionwood, stretch the grafting tape to near its limit, so that we will have a very thin layer of grafting tape that will serve as sealant and to break easily when there is expansive growth on the scionwood. We will have to seal the scionwood to minimize moisture loses as we wait for the union to heal and the sap flowing. A better approach is to paint the scionwood with a grafting sealer, and I intentionally did not use that because we can get by with grafting tape if we have a lot of grafting tape. I'm beginning to like the grafting tape much better than the paint sealant because it is a lot cleaner and not messy at all, and less work to clean up the brushes and lids of the sealant, etc.

You will realize that our reinforced graft union is very strong when you stretch the grafting tape to wrap the scionwood. The scionwood may bend but the union won't budge. Some grafters would wrap the the scionwood first before inserting them into the bark, but with our rubber band reinforcement, that won't be necessary as we have a strong graft union.

Continue sealing the scionwood with grafting tape, but leave some opening for the bud to grow. You can also cover the bud with the tape as long as you use one layer, but I just want the buds not to have any hindrances at all, so I did not cover them with grafting tape.