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Kenneth Owen of Tulsa, Oklahoma is proud of his wife. And he has every right to be. They were looking to outfit a new bedroom and fell in love with a Moser-style bed. So she decided to build one. That’s right — she did the milling and gluing and bending and clamping.  Everything.  And the results are outstanding.

Ken posted photos of the process of building this bed. You can read all about it over on WoodNet. It’s an amazing story of how the project was completed and Ken gives all the details of how his wife progressed from start to finish.

As I was stepping out to do a seminar on hand planes and scrapers at the Woodsmith Store last week, I noticed a couple of new items on Randy’s desk. He had just received two new planes from the Blum Tool Company, a small firm in Walnut, Iowa. The owner, Gary Blum, was kind enough to send Randy a smoother and a jack plane. They were strikingly beautiful with their all wood bodies of maple and cherry. And they had a very unusual blade and adjustment arrangement, But I’ve seen good-looking wooden planes before and been a little disappointed. For a lark (and because I thought they’d at least make good window dressing at the seminar) I took them both with me to the store.

After setting everything up for the seminar, I had a little time to spare. So I dug out the instructions on the Blum planes and gave them a quick glance. I wasn’t planning on doing an extensive setup or anything, but I wanted to at least see how they worked. After all, they had a different design from anything I’d ever tried before.

You see, they don’t have a conventional plane iron. Instead they use a small blade which is attached to a massive (¾”-thick) adjustable, frog-like device. Sounds complicated, right? Not at all. A star knob on the back loosens to allow adjustments of the blade depth. You just set the depth and angle of the blade with two knurled screws, tighten the star knob and you’re off. 

After five minutes of tweaking the smoother, I was taking whisper-thin shavings off a birdseye maple board. Okay, now they had my full attention. I already liked the way they felt in my hand (very light weight with a comfortable tote), and clearly they were serious tools—not just eye candy.

Gary makes only four designs at this time, the smoother and the jack that I tried out and a fore plane and jointer. Prices are more than reasonable, ranging from $199 for the smoother to $245 for the jointer. (Although Gary charges a little more for rosewood versions of these designs.)

To find out more about Blum Tools, check out Gary’s website.

Garrett French is at it again over at the ToolCrib.com blog. He’s compiled a list of the “5 Most Influential Woodworkers” based on input from folks at a couple of forums, including the WoodNet forum. Like any list, it may be more interesting for who was left off, than who was included. I’d like to mention a couple of people who weren’t on the list, but in my opinion, should be placed right near the top.

Don Peschke and Paul Roman.

If those two names aren’t so familiar to you, it’s because they’ve both worked more behind the scenes as the pioneering editors and publishers of Woodsmith and Fine Woodworking magazines, respectively. Each has probably influenced more people to get into the shop and actually build something than just about anyone else on Garrett’s list.

Neither Don nor Paul’s name is as familiar perhaps as Norm Abram, but to me their magazines were groundbreaking. Woodsmith, published by August Home Publishing (they also put out ShopNotes, Workbench, Garden Gate, and Cuisine at home), is unique in that it doesn’t just show you a pretty project, it helps you build the project with detailed step-by-step instructions and clear, concise drawings and photos. I remember the first time I picked up Woodsmith magazine, my very first thought was “I can do that!”

(As you may know, Don owns the company I work for, so this is not a completely unbiased post! But the fact is, I’ve been an editor for Woodsmith for 7 years, but I’ve been reading the magazine for over twenty-five years.)

Paul Roman, and his wife Jan, started Fine Woodworking in 1975 and it eventually expanded into a publishing empire that includes magazines for woodworking, home building, cooking, and gardening. Paul’s goal was to have a woodworking magazine that not only informed, but also inspired its readers. There’s no arguing with that, it’s an awesome magazine.

I suppose we’ll always be more influenced by TV personalities. And this is not a knock on Norm, but I’d rather read about woodworking and then go do it myself, than watch it being done on TV anyday.

If you’d like to subscribe to Woodsmith to find out exactly what I mean, click here.