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Hander Woodworking and its logo are registered trademarks of Hander Woodworking
Hander Woodworking and its logo are registered trademarks of Hander Woodworking
In the early 1980's this game table was brought into Hander Woodworking for fire damage repair on the top. The client said her family was from Lebanon, that the table had been handed down from generation to generation and that she had only recently received it. She had a candle burning on it and unfortunately forgot about it. The candle burnt through the marquetry and deep into the substrate near the center of one edge. The client, who was very kind, was nearly frantic over the damage to the family heirloom.
In the color picture, above, the new marquetry is located from (and including) the two triangles on the left, to (and including) the two triangles on the right, and from (and including) the black band on the top to (and including) the banding on the bottom of the picture.
In the bottom picture, the mahogany rectangle, the colored banding surrounding it and the mahogany trim out to the squares, is new. The substrate was burnt down to roughly three quarters of the side's thickness, so the charcoal and bad wood was cut out and new wood glued in its place.
In the bottom picture, the mahogany rectangle, the colored banding surrounding it and the mahogany trim out to the squares, is new. The substrate was burnt down to roughly three quarters of the side's thickness, so the charcoal and bad wood was cut out and new wood glued in its place.
Sheet metal frames were cut and soldered together in which to build the three major shapes; those shapes being the triangle, the rectangle and the main hexagonal shape shown in the top, color picture. Different species of veneer were cut and some were dyed. Ivory from old piano keys was required as well as mother of pearl from abalone shells. Over 680 individual pieces, in varying shapes and sizes, (the largest being 10 millimeters long and the smallest no more than 1 millimeter wide) were made and used. It took roughly 200 hours to complete the job and the area which the repair encompassed was, perhaps, 1 or 2% of the entire decorated surface area of the piece. The table had three different inner playing surfaces that opened similar to a wooden changing screen. The repairs blended so well with the original marquetry that the client briefly debated about even mentioning the incident to her mother but then quickly decided she had to.
