Here I was dealing with heavy staining in the wood, 2 difficult cracks and a piece let in.
The fact that there was no original varnish left in the area facilitated the cleaning of the retouch and stain.
I replaced the repair piece like for like – just angling the endgrain joints a bit more – to remove only the minimum amount of original wood. The reflection of the new piece didn’t match that well but the remaining stain in the surrounding area helped to tone down the reflection of the new piece with water colour and there is now no visible reflection issue.
Iris Carr Restorations 