There have been a bunch of folks who have had a major influence on Tom’s Workbench over the past five years. I wanted to take the time to recognize a few of the folks with which the blog would have never happened.

Today, I send a shout-out to Kari Hultman of the Village Carpenter.

I first met Kari at the 2009 Woodworking in America conference in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The funny thing is that I had met her virtually before the conference, since we had already became acquainted through Marc Spagnuolo’s Wood Whisperer site.

The one thing that stuck out about Kari when I first met her was her incredible – almost encyclopedic – knowledge of woodworking hand tools. She can pick up a hand saw and notice the smallest details about it. She gave me a primer on hand planes. She showed just about everyone up at the Hand Tool Olympics.

So, when the time came for me to buy a set of chisels, who do you think I turned to for advice? And what great advice she gave me as I went through a used set, then turned to a new and different choice. All of the time, she was there to answer questions – no matter how stupid they were (and did I ever give her a few humdingers!) She offered the same advice on my entry into carving, and has always been encouraging.

Kari shares her experience and expertise freely with the rest of the woodworking community, volunteering to teach classes at her local guild and at other locations.  She has even offered to give me a few lessons on letter carving… I hope that when we meet again in Cincinnati, I can take her up on her offer!

I can assure you that she will probably blush and will give me some grief for listing her today, but she definitely deserves all the kudos that come her way!