Interesting, i have opposite problem…
Those short angles are tough for me to get aligned on both.
Prefer longer cuts.
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What I did was I measured the diameter of where I wanted to slice my scion & find the part of the rootstock with the same diameter. On both pieces the diameter would drop after one to three nodes, and often the nodes were close to each other, maybe 1” apart. So I learned to do short splices.
Plus, with apples and pears the wood tends to bulge wherever there’s a node, or even in random places with apples. I can cut off one node, but the next node will be on the other side, so I can only go so far before the splice looks like a flask.
put these Toka grafts on the about 13-14 days ago. It was hot but now cooling off and even about to rain. Would it be ok to remove the foil now? One W&T I put on an upper branch is blooming. I’ve had great success with figs, citrus and pears but stone fruit not so much.
I’m not sure where you’re located, but I grafted Flavor King exactly a month ago and it has already leafed out. The Asian pears and cherries I grafted the same time are also around the same stage. I only used parafilm and rubber tape but no foil cover.
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Nice looking good. Z9B NorCal. Love the FK. I was off on the date. These are 13 days. I got on the 27’th. I’ll leave the foil off then. It won’t rain too much but Saturday it’s supposed to get about an inch.
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My 10 day.. has one day at 76… and 8 days of 80+. Lows of 55-65.
I grafted apples today.
My Novamac B9 Espellar (loaded with blossoms now) has a graft of Pristine and Trailman added last year. Pristene is blooming perfectly with Novamac. Trailman was a little early.
I added a graft of Chestnut and Centennial to it today.
Out in my orchard I have a Novamac and Early Mac on M7. They have grafts of Trailman, Pristene and Chestnut from last spring.
Today I added grafts of Centennial and Enterprise.
Should have all covered well with pollination now.
TNHunter
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For pawpaws on 2 year old root stock do you keep covered with shade cloth after they start growing?
If I didn’t graft them I would think they are big enough for no shade cloth this year
I was not thrilled with the state or my budwood when I pulled it out this morning. The apricots had some decent buds still on them, but the peaches and nects. 
Well, I wrapped them up with buddy tape and gave it a shot. If nothing else, it’s more practice.
Would wrapping the individual sticks before storing them in the fridge potentially help? We had a warm spell around when it shipped, and the buds were a little farther along than ideal when they arrived, but they’ve definitely gotten worse in my fridge. I guess I should schedule the delivery even later next year? (I was a bit thinking apple timing, not stone fruit timing when I placed the order, which contributed)
Grafting itself was a mixed bag. Thought I was going to be doing mostly clefts, but the trunks were bigger than I expected, so I had to look up a refresher on bark grafts midway. The bark didn’t pull away as cleanly as I hoped - bits of fibrey stuff. Am I already too late for bark slip? I know I’m not too early. Also, I was inspired by you guys to try my very first real whip-and-tongue graft. Not nearly as scary as I anticipated! The extra fiddling with the knife is totally worth the reduced fiddling with wrapping compared to the splice grafts I’d been doing. 100% recomend beginners give it a try r @BackyardProduce had a picture of a ‘baby’ whip and tongue that helped it ‘click’ for me. Thanks!
Other lessons learned: Buddy tape is definitely better than parafilm. Totally worth the what I thought was an exorbitant price when I bought it. Also, I think it was @alan ‘s tip about twisting the tape into a little rope at the tail is a big winner. Makes it so much easier to finish off nice and tight without ripping it.
Also, wrapping grafts in foil - am I doing it right? That’s another new thing for me. I just kinda glommed it on.
In good news, The apple I grafted this winter is leafing out, and the one from last year is growing well, though, dang that M111 rootstock is lumpy. And best of all? fingers 100% intact this year. 
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Nope, I can’t take credit for that. Just wrapping works for me. From the electrical vinyl tape holding it to the mother to around the tip of the scion.
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Yeah I got an OHxF 87 from Maple Valley that looks the same. Very lumpy. Very few roots also, I’m hoping it bounces back.
I think tongues in general are best with good scionwood, that one year old, 4-7 mm stuff with a little bit of flex.
I was grafting two year old plum scions today and the stiffness of that wood makes my baby tongues not worth the effort. A tongue needs a little flexibility to lock well. With stiff wood, it’s like making Lego bricks.
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This year, I did some long grafting. Longer than my arm. Her is a couple of apple grafting. Cleft graft when the tree and the scions was in dormant state. Only wrapped the graft union. Everything work fine.
Grafted apple seedling to crababpple
Another different apple seedling to the crabapple
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I don’t think that foil is needed unless it’s mid to upper 80s, or hotter. Foil slows down the grafting success when it’s cooler than that. If it does not go above mid to upper 70s you might get away with putting plastic wrap in place of the foil, that would help to keep the cuttings more moist. As a matter of fact now I plan to use plastic wrap always, and if it gets too hot, then put foil over it.
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Yes it was full sun and upper 80’s when I put them on and up until yesterday. Today it was overcast and very nice temps.
You put plastic wrap over the buddy tape? I’ve used fig pop bags when it rained just to keep moisture away from possibly getting in the parafilm or union.
I use rubber bands that are a lot like extra long buddy tape when trimmed down, they have more resistance to stretching than buddy tape, and they seem impossible to snap.
I have tried different kinds of bags over the years. Paper bags, and plastic zipper bags, although those are way more likely to blow away in the wind, and possibly remove the scion as the wind pulls one of them away. In past years some of my grafts got ruined that way, sometimes we get strong winds here.
Any type of plastic that has a good seal is a great way to keep the scion and it’s buds from drying out, and during the cool nights it helps the cuttings stay a little less cool while reducing temperature change at the graft, as long as it’s not too hot out, although aluminum over the plastic can prevent sun from cooking the graft area during hot weather. I stopped using an extra layer of parafilm, because that is much harder to remove afterwords, and electrical tape is even harder to remove.
Good info thanks Alan. Here it’s tough to use plastic because it’s much warmer so they can’t breathe and rot from the warm temps and moisture. Although this week is cooled off nicely. I’m hoping at least a few of these take. 
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Maybe you could try grafting in March, or maybe even February if it’s not too cold in February where you are, I could graft in March here, and I am considering doing it next year. Although then here we could get mid to upper 80s as well. Although some years there is less heat in March.
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Yes March is doable here this year it seemed to go from winter to summer and revert back to winter/spring. Everything budded out and fruited what seemed so long ago from the hot temps. No real freezes either even my peppers never stopped flowering.
Interesting, I added a bunch of grafts today and while it’s just upper 60’s, the sun was so strong. Weekend highs are sunny 69’s the next two days before skyrocketing to 80-90. Should I remove the foil until Monday?
Also, grafting during a free hour today I learned that parafilm makes an excellent quick bandage! So great that I plan to get a roll for my hiking bag. It wasn’t the knife, I was super careful on all the grafts, but rushing through putting on my tags I stabbed myself with the wires a few times.
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I am using a grafting tool, when I used a knife I cut myself multiple times a year with the knife, with practice I have gotten very good at grafting with the tool. I don’t care for those tag wires I have switched to ‘Nylon Mason line String’. The wires eventually get too short, and can dig in to the tree if you don’t replace them soon enough, at least the ‘Nylon Mason line String’ can be put on long, and yes those wires are sharp. I already scratch myself with thorns too much, LOL
I would just leave the foil on, clearly the cool whether does not stay around too long where you live, it’s the same problem here. So I just leave it on. I am not going to play around with foil every few days, and I am not sure about where you live, although here the forecast can be unpredictable, and so sometimes I would need to put the foil back on sooner than I would have originally thought if I had taken it off. I hope that your grafts take.
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All of my apricot on peach grafts appear to be unsuccessful.
All of my apple on G41s are doing well despite the fact the stool bed step was skipped.
Now for the weirdness. Out of four varieties and 10 scions grafted on the Ark Black, The Dixie Red delight was the first to emerge with leaves. Growth has stalled. The Royal Limbertwig has pulled ahead w/.5 inch leaves. The Brushy and White Limbertwig scions are doing nothing. Perhaps they are just slow.
On the GD tree, the Hawaii scions have pulled ahead of all others and have leaves about an inch. The VA Sweet has broken bud. A purloined scions did not take at all.
All scions were grafted using the same technique. It almost seems some apple scions don’t take well with certain apple trees. At least two of each variety were grafted. All the pairs are behaving the same. 7 pairs were grafted.