Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
We describe the embedded resolution of an irreducible quasi-ordinary surface singularity $\left( V,\,p \right)$ which results from applying the canonical resolution of Bierstone-Milman to $\left( V,\,p \right)$. We show that this process depends solely on the characteristic pairs of $\left( V,\,p \right)$, as predicted by Lipman. We describe the process explicitly enough that a resolution graph for $f$ could in principle be obtained by computer using only the characteristic pairs.