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.