Daniel Shafner writes:

I received the following email from my cousin. He lives
overseas and requests my input for the following repair problem
Although I am inclined to tell him to slice into each bubbled area,
inject it with glue and mash down the difference using clamps and
plexiglass I want to get opinions from people who have done these
more than my once. Maybe there is a better approach or something
I am not doing. The plexiglass is so that you can check the progress
of the mashing down, I would think.

Here is the text of his email to me:

I picked up an end table that has an oak veneered top, which also has
some inlays of some accent wood in different places in the top surface.

The customer had a vase which leaked and caused the main oak
veneer to discolor and to become unglued. My problem is: how
to reglue this 10" diameter circle of loose veneer so it's
glued down smooth and not lumpy or raised.

I tried gluing a small test area by slicing the oak veneer and
spreading glue in a 2" diameter, then clamping it down. The
results were a bumpy area where some slivers of oak veneer
were above the level of the main veneer.

Daniel Shafner
New London, CT