A Place For Practicing Hand-tool Traditions and Preserving Antiques
A visit with PAT EDWARDS

When Pat Edwards started woodworking 30 years ago in a small rented room previously used as a TV repair shop, he didn't suspect that he would someday purchase that space as well as the house attached to. Edwards, a traditional ebeniste trained at L'Ecole Boulle in Paris, converted the 1,250-sq.-ft. house and repair shop into a hand-tool workshop by knocking down most of the interior walls and setiing up two workbench areas, one for him and the other for a visiting student or apprentice.

Sawing delicate veneers with its horizontally mounted blade, Pat Edwards works at a traditional "donkey" saw, cutting out hundreds of small parts for a marquetry pattern.
His San Diego, Calif., shop is equipped with two marquetry donkeys (special sawing horses) and a large "scie a plafond" (throatless jigsaw). There's also a veneer press area, a small desk/office space, and a finishing area for French polishing. Edwards builds traditional handmade furniture and restores 18th-century furniture.
With a huge collection of vintage handplanes any collector would be envious of, Edwards has equipped his shop with all the tools necessary for repairing antiques or building new pieces entirely in traditional fashion.
Edwards examines the condition of the veneer marquetry on a decorative tabletop he is renovating, deciding which pieces can be repaired and which must be replaced.
Built from dry-stacked concrete blocks filled with sand, Edward's 16-ft.-long "veneer cave" provides safe storage for the dozens of flitches of rare and expensive veneers it contains (security is provided by shop dog, Nikki).
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