Thursday, September 10, 2009

Handplane Essentials

On this day, the two year anniversary of my blog, I am giving away a [gently perused] copy of Chris Schwarz' new book Handplane Essentials.

Why am I giving this away? Because I have another copy, autographed by Chris himself, which I plan to sell on ebay in 20 years for 3 million dollars. Oh yeah. Can you say "cushy retirement"?

Chris is a fabu writer. Anyone who can weave Crystal Gayle's hair and Foghorn Leghorn into woodworking prose gets an A+ in my book.

But let's talk about his book instead.

In 312 pages, Chris walks you through the basics—the differences between the types of planes, how to sharpen them, which plane to use for which job, techniques to use them effectively—to understanding grain direction, flattening a workbench top, tricks for perfect set up, and reviewing modern planemakers. He also includes plans to build a plane cabinet.

Much of the book's contents can be found on his blog, but having all of the details about handplanes bound together, provides an excellent resource at the ready.

Chris is passionate about handplanes, and in his book he clearly explains everything you need to know to make them work perfectly.

So, how do you win the prize? The first person to write in the comments section the full names, including middle names, of my two dogs, wins! Last name is a given: Hultman.

Hint: I have mentioned their full names in a previous blog post.

15 comments:

  1. I'm bad with names and already have a copy of Chris' book so I'll not attempt to win the prize.

    I did, however, want to congratulate you on your two-year blog anniversary. I've learned a lot from following it so I'm glad to hear that you don't plan on retiring for 20 years.

    Cheers --- Larry

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  2. easy-peazy for the avid follower:

    Rosebud Grace Hultman (Rosie)
    Charlie Jane Hultman

    you shoulda asked for something like listing all the music in your video snippets.

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  3. oops.... Charlie is your parent's dog (d'oh!)

    make that:

    Daisy Susan Hultman
    and
    Rosebud Grace Hultman (Rosie)

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  4. Thanks Larry! However, if I hit the lottery before then, I will retire early. ; )

    Mdhills, nice save! You were about to hear the "incorrect!" beep. Email me your address: goodwoodworkshop@comcast.net and I'll send you the book, promptly.

    The next contest will not be so easy.....

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  5. You contest proves one thing. We need a much better search engine than google. Maybe doogle?

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  6. Kari,

    Congratulations on your second anniversary, and may you enjoy many, many more!

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  7. Kari,
    Congrats on your first two years... hope they are the first of many. I thoroughly enjoy your blog and your work.
    Jim K

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  8. Congratulations on the two years! Excellent, just excellent work you've been doing here.

    The culture of that trestle table you're working on must have rubbed off on you (I mean that positively). Here in Deutschland, the person who is celebrating something special brings the cake to work. I am sorry that I didn't win (drat!), but I think it's excellent that you celebrated your anniversary this way. I look forward to the next two years.

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  9. LOL@Michael!

    Thanks, Al. I had only planned to have this blog for 1.5 years, so this is a shock that it's still going.

    Thanks, JimK. :o)

    Geemoney, that's a nice tradition for the person who is celebrating to bring the cake. It makes more sense somehow. I would always bring Death By Chocolate cake. ; )

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  10. You have a great shop and blog. Thanks for sharing your journey.

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  11. Congratulations on two years success. It's a great blog that fills an important role.

    So let me get this straight, if I get the name of the book right I get your two dogs??

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  12. Kari--since, as you mentioned, much of the book's contents are on Chris's venerable blog, would you perhaps recommend the DVD over the book if one had to choose between them?

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  13. Naomi, my personal preference is always books over dvds. I like to be able to take books out to the shop with me for reference. I can't take my computer out there. But like I said, that's just my preference. I haven't actually seen Chris' dvd, so I'm sorry that I can't give you a comparison.

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