"M&K" wrote:
We had a small candle burning in a glass container (about the size of a shot
glass) on our wood mantle. The candle burned to the bottom of the wick. The
container got so hot, we now have a black scorch mark on the wood. Are there
any tricks to removing this, or is our only option to sand and refinish?

If it's just a scorch of the varnish / poly, you can sand and refinish. If
it's a serious burn, probably the best you can do is try to mess around with the
finish to make it sort of look like it "belongs". Might just have to learn
to like the "distressed" look for this mantle...it's not a burn mark, it's
character :-)