This 19th century, Cuban (or Spanish) mahogany writing desk survived a severe house fire, though not totally unscathed. As the bottom pictures show, the desk top suffered water damage and burns in several places. The owner brought the desk into Hander Woodworking wishing to conserve the piece but he naturally wanted the burns repaired since he used the desk to write upon. Apart from the obvious problem of the deep charcoal, the location of the burns made the desk virtually useless as a writing surface. It was mutually decided, then, that the burns would be cut out and new Cuban mahogany would be inlaid into the voids. The pictures below are the early part of that process and the top picture is the completed job.