Yeh, it seems as if the NPCs in PlaneShift have grown roots after standing for so long in the same place, and it seems as well that by growing roots, they have also gained the IQ of a tree (however, I have seen Harnquist run...). So Harnquist forgot that to do the quest he asked for, you needed something else from him before ... or maybe that he doesn't want any concurrence...
You should be able to create an other character and do the quest "Learning metal working" with it in order to get the book, then just give that book to your proper character.
