First let me complement Rick on the repair he did, it did come out just fine.
What I wanted to show other forum members, is a wrongko severely damaged that were restored by the best of the best.
I must admit that I had given up on doing anything with it, and was prepared to commision a new one, when I was told that wood of that quality is hard if not impossible to find, and that it indeed were restorable as is, to my big surprise.
I will be posting the "before" photos in this post and the "after" in a post following this one.
I also invite your comments!
The before pictures: