Holtey Handplanes

One of the great things about this conference is that there is an incredible array of tools from all kinds of makers.  I just had the great experience of being able to try out a plane made by Karl Holtey.  It was one of his smoothing planes.  I'm not sure how much it was worth, but I think it was somewhere in the $3,500 range.  There are planes and then there are Holtey Planes.  This is the woodworking equivalent of driving a Masserati.  It was perfect in every way.  The shavings on curly maple were translucent and wide and the mass of the plane seemed to coast along the board, taking little effort to push it along.  As you can probably tell, I was really thrilled.  What a treat to be in the same room as one of these.  Check out the website at www.holteyplanes.com to see the best planes ever made, and possibly the best that ever will be made.