Treatment of the readily available (S)-(+) and (R)-(-) enantiomers of 2-aminobutan-1-ol 1 with sodium hydride followed by benzyl chloride, or a substituted benzyl halide, afforded the corresponding O-benzyl bases 4-7 in good yields. These new bases are recommended for the large scale resolution of racemic acids. For instance, they proved efficient for the practical resolutions of α-methylsuccinic acid (±)-9, N-acetylphenylglycine (±)-11, N-acetyl-(4-hydroxyphenyl) glycine (±)-14 and N-chloroacetyl-(4-hydroxyphenyl) glycine (±)-15.