NRWG keeps tradition of woodworking alive

The smell of wood shavings filled the Bozeman High School (BHS) workshop last Tuesday as members of the Northern Rockies Woodworking Guild (NRWG) gathered to chat and watch a wood-turning demo.

The NRWG — a local chapter of the American Association of Woodturners — aims to continue the woodworking tradition in the Bozeman community, according to its website. The club holds monthly meetings featuring a variety of events including lathe demos, show-and-tells and shop tours.

The guild was founded in the 1980s and now has about 30 members of all ages. According to the club's website, its goal is to bring together people with an interest in woodworking, regardless of skill level, so they can learn from one another.

“I’ve found the woodworking community to be welcoming in every place I’ve approached it,” said NRWG member Elliot Romo-Kurek. “I think of it as carrying on this torch, passing on these skills, because otherwise these things will die.”

Each NRWG meeting is a little different, according to the guild’s website. Most are held in the BHS shop, but when school ends, the meetings move. May 12 is the last meeting scheduled at BHS for the summer.

“One of my first jobs out of MSU, I worked with a guy who was in the club,” NRWG member Jim Palakovich said. “He knew I was interested in woodworking — I had never done anything with a lathe — and he said you should come to the meetings. It was one of those things that, once I started learning to turn, all my other tools just kind of sit.”

During the summer, a different club member volunteers to host the meeting at their personal shop each month.

“Your house starts getting really full of all of this stuff, everybody you give it away to doesn’t want anymore, so I started selling in galleries,” member Boyd Carson said. “That was a lot of fun because it pushes you to expand your creativity, do different things.”

The club also hosts fundamental wood-turning events called “Sawdust and Shavings Sessions,” where members hold a workshop on turning basics at their homes. These events offer a unique way to connect with makers on their home turf, according to the NRWG website.

According to some members, finding good wood to turn can be difficult. To remedy this, the guild has raffles for wood at most meetings.

“Depending on the size of the wood and what it looks like on the outside, you can kind of make a decision about what you might try and make,” Carson said. “Then once you start to cut it away, you’re going to find a whole other surprise inside. You just have to create as you go.”

Though there are only a few members under 60, Palakovich said that does not mean woodworking is a lost art. According to him, it is still very much alive in communities like the guild.

“In a sense, it is becoming a less popular hobby,” Romo-Kurek said. “I don’t want to say it’s a dying art because there are people carrying it on. There are young people in these meetings, young people are doing this work. It is absolutely not going anywhere.”

Carson said woodworking is special because it gives craftsmen a new appreciation for the world.

“I think what kind of stands out when you do that kind of stuff, is it really connects you with nature and the planet,” he said. “You see what a beautiful, special world we live in, and how we really need to cherish it, because it is all around us.”

To learn more about the NRWG, visit https://www.nrwg.club/.