I'm the reason a photo like this exists. My old holder was one of those flat wooden boards with a hole in one end, and it was fine for about a year — until enough ash had built up along the board that the ember reached the wood and left a black ring on my nightstand. I sanded it twice and it is still there. I ordered this the same week. The whole difference is that the stick clips in tip-down and hangs out over the glass cup, so there is physically nothing underneath the burning end except glass. The ash doesn't drift sideways onto the wood the way it did off the flat board; it drops straight down into the cup, and the cup lifts out so you can tap it into the bin and rinse it. Three months and probably a dozen empties later there isn't a mark on the wood anywhere near it. Twenty-four dollars sounds steep for an incense holder right up until you've tried to refinish a nightstand.





