Gordon McMullen's workshop isn't really that small. But the bulky homebuilt lathes, the piles of unfinished wooden bowls and the sawdust that perfumes the air all take up most of the room, leaving little space to move around.
That's understandable, given that McMullen, 83, spends hours in the woodturning workshop each day poring over spinning bowls or other projects, touching them lightly with handmade tools, giving the wood shape.
McMullen has been working with wood since he was nine years old, but he makes it clear that the hobby was on hiatus during his plumbing career.
"For me, it's mindless," he said. "You don't have to think about anything, and you can just lose yourself in the woodchips."
And in Bozeman, woodworkers like McMullen are trying to pass along their ancient and intricate craft.
On the second Thursday of each month, McMullen meets with the newly revived Northern Rockies Woodworkers Guild, where he and other local woodworkers, expert and novice alike, give demonstrations and present pieces they've made.
Like McMullen's woodworking, the Woodworkers Guild, which started in the mid-1980s, went through a lull but was rejuvenated in 2000. Both the club's and McMullen's history reflect the craft of woodworking, which died out during the industrial revolution, but has made a comeback since the 1950's.
At March's meeting, McMullen placed next to the other 15 or so members' works a small, round snuff box with intricate wooden threads and an ornate rosette on the top. The box was made mostly from "ipe," otherwise called Brazilian Ironwood.
A humble man, McMullen said the box was "more experimental than anything else," but the way the other members admired the piece said otherwise.
Vice president Jim Larson rolled the box in his fingers taking in all the details.
"This is some incredible work, Gordon," he said.
Intricate work
Woodturning is a form of woodwork that makes use of a lathe, a machine that spins wood fast enough that a steady hand and a sharp tool will carve just about anything from a block of wood.
In McMullen's workshop, there is a hollow cube with large holes on each face and a ball in the middle that doesn't fit through the holes, like a ship in a bottle. It was carved entirely out of one piece of wood.
He's proud of the piece but insists he'll never do it again.
"That was my first and last attempt," he said.
There have been several pieces like that.
"I made a peg leg for a guy once," he said. "That was the first and last one of those I've ever done."
Going through his pieces, he always makes a point of noting their imperfections, many hardly visible to the untrained eye. A nick here. A rough edge there.
"In woodworking, nothing is ever perfect," he said. "You don't know whether you'll ever achieve that, but you keep trying."
There's a sign by the door that reads: "Noli illegitimi carborundum," which he says means "Don't let the bastards grind you down."
Just above that is a sizable dent in the metal wall, put there by a chunk of wood flung just past his head by the lathe.
"Some of the smaller pieces are really spooky," he said of the thinner, fragile pieces. "It's fun in a way, but the whole time you're ready to flip. It's an adrenaline rush.
"The whole time, you know you're going to break it, but then a lot of times it turns out just fine."
Passing the craft along
Susan Razzano, the president of the Woodworkers Guild, is happy to have McMullen around.
"He's just helped so many people over the years," Razzano said.
He enjoys teaching others about the craft, he said. A few years ago, he spent 10 hours teaching a shoe designer from Lima some techniques.
"At first he didn't have any idea what he was doing," McMullen said. "But it's so much easier to teach an artist to turn than a turner to be an artist."
McMullen also spends time once a week with the Bozeman High School shop classes, which he called "the best fun I've had with this."
"Some of the kids really get into it," he said.
Hunting for scraps
All the different kinds of wood on the shelves in his shop have come from different places, most of it scrap wood from larger projects.
"You have to really hunt for it," he said. "I suppose you could compare it to dumpster diving.
"Buying the wood can be so damn expensive, you hate to mess up when you're turning it, but most woodworkers have ways of finding wood."
Elm, aspen, pink ivory, Osage orange, holly -- each one has its own character and contributes a unique quality to the final piece.
"I used to start turning and see what would come out from there," McMullen said. "But now I look at a piece of wood, and I can pretty much see what it's going to be."
With his homebuilt lathes and creative hands, the work McMullen does is from an era before mass-production, one where every piece is different from the last and always whittled away with care.
"The creative part is the shape," McMullen said. "If you don't have a good shape, you don't have anything."
Michael Gibney can be reached at mgibney@dailychronicle.com or 582-2638.
vamoots2go posted at 3:11 pm on Fri, Apr 9, 2010.
We've got a range of pieces that Gordon has created--and friends always are stunned by his work. Keep it up RG! From your four-person fan club in Denver.