ESTEVAN - If a hobby is fuelled by a combination of passion and professional skills, the outcomes are incredible.
Laurence Mack, a life-long carpenter, found his hobby, which appeared to be an extension of his profession, over a decade ago when, while still working for Senchuck Ford in Estevan, he came across a big collection of different wood pieces.
“They told me that if I wanted something out of their warehouse I could have it. I did a lot of work for Senchuck Ford. So I found these boxes and there was all this wood, 400 pieces of wood. So I bought the whole thing from them,” shared Mack, standing by a display filled with dozens of unique, beautiful, hand-crafted pens, which launched the beginning of his hobby and his unbelievable collection of wooden art.
The first pen he ever made sits in the cupboard on a carved stand, keeping the history of how talent, skills, spare time and absence of love for coffee led to the creation of hundreds of one-of-a-kind pieces.
The wooden pens were followed by hand-made acrylic ones. Mack said he created hundreds of pens since he started with the hobby, but very soon his interest went beyond writing accessories and he started experimenting with creating different items, using blueprints and various wood cutting tools and techniques.
“I just carried on to do some other things like woodworking like this, doing trucks and stuff like that, something more to do,” Mack said.
He says he never created two pieces that were the same, and quite often he doesn’t know what he would make next until he finds a new piece of wood and starts working on it.
"It comes out of (my head). When I find a good piece of wood that looks like this, I make it into this, and I don't know what I start with. I just make it,” Mack shared.
Clocks and fine decorations, sports cars, trucks, semis and heavy equipment, trains, planes and a farm cart, guns, cannons and swords, musical instruments, all kinds of cups, goblets, bowls and vases, miniature animals, carved images and even golf putters and a golf ball puzzle – the room where the master keeps his collection is filled with wonderful creations, many of which have a story behind them.
“It has only three strings. It’s called dulcimer down in West Virginia,” explained Mack while playing on a small guitar-like musical instrument he created.
“This is the walking cane I made … It is made out of five pieces of wood glued together and then shaped. Someday I might need that,” Mack said with a smile, continuing the tour of the collection.
“That Tommy gun here, I made this from a picture of a real gun. We were down in Deadwood (South Dakota). My son was with me. And they had a real one in the casino, under glass. So I held my hand up like this, and he took a picture of it from behind so I knew how long it was going to be.”
He made golf putters of different kinds for all his kids and grandkids, who are all into golf.
While some machinery he created was built by a blueprint, many items Mack did just using a picture, his own memories of some interesting pieces he noticed somewhere or even imagination. Mack doesn't use any kind of kits and creates every piece and detail himself.
Some wood he buys, but a lot of it is something others would consider garbage – logs and wooden chunks he picks up here and there to later set the art piece hidden inside it free in his workshop. No paint goes on his woodwork, but Mack often combines different wood species to create a pattern.
The detailed blueprint on the wall of his little workshop, filled with different kinds of saws and tools, depicts hundreds of pieces he has to cut to create a big trackhoe – his next large project.
“It could be weeks, there's no deadline, it's a long winter,” Mack said. “All the pieces you have to make from scratch. No one piece is made for you. Pages and pages to make one thing.”
Mack knew a lot about carpentry, but many things about his hobby were new and challenging, so “trial and error” was his way of getting further and further in it. However, at the same time, it was what made this hobby so special for him.
“I enjoy what I do. I'm not much of a coffee guy, I found that out a long time ago. So I started doing this instead,” Mack said. “It is challenging, really challenging. Either I'm getting older, or it's getting tougher.”
Mack says he creates his pieces for himself, yet he does show his gorgeous collection. “Not to everyone,” he says. But to those really interested in his hobby. And his entire collection but one item is kept to the family.
“The only piece that somebody owns is at Turnbull Redi-Mix. That's the only thing that I ever sold. I sold it to his son-in-law, he gave it to him for a present,” Mack said.
He added that people ask to buy his woodwork, but he doesn't sell it.
