The philosophy in restoration is to preserve as much of the original material as possible. Here is an example of professional repair work using that philosophy. This is a before and after.

A back post on one of the chairs had a split crack. We were able to “humor” the split back together wholly, and successfully glue it back together. The repair will disappear in refinishing. In the bottom left-hand corner, a scarf joint was accomplished to replace the damaged edge back to its original form. This is a good example of preserving the original and adding in walnut where needed, to complete the original foot.