MACON - As Neal Stombaugh walks through his woodworking shop, he can point out the source of nearly every piece of wood stacked ready for creations.

"That's ash. That came from right over here," the Macon man points. "A block and a half away.

"The walnut? That's from (the) farm. The hard maple? Right here in town."

What started out as a means of relaxation has evolved from bats to pens, from clocks to wooden bowls, from lamps to name plates.

"It's not a business," emphasized the retired Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. worker. "It's a hobby."

It was in 1993 that Stombaugh first appeared on the pages of the Decatur Herald & Review. The story by staff writer Arvin Donley featured Stombaugh's bats, including those he made for members of his favorite baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals.

"We had a courtesy car in the late 1980s, early '90s," said Pat Dawson, managing partner of Miles Chevrolet, where Stombaugh remains as one of the company's courtesy drivers.

Dawson said that's how Stombaugh met Al Hrabosky, former Cardinals relief pitcher, who along with other Cardinal players secured some of Stombaugh's bats.

But, Stombaugh said, he's sort of drifted away from creating what he called "swingbats."

His woodworking has evolved into more complicated creations. There's the semitruck, created for grandsons, with working wheels, trailer doors that open to allow a loading ramp to be used and smoke stacks created from corncobs. There are bottle stoppers featuring critters and letters and personalized name plates mounted at an angle.

"You can read it better on an angle," he said.

He has created walnut cars with wheels that roll, clocks with pheasants at the numbers, Dawson said, as well as pens for customers, which Stombaugh said he makes out of wood, corn cobs, even deer antlers.

But his most difficult test was to re-create the Lord's Prayer using a blackout scroll saw pattern. He has written the prayer in wood in two different sizes, one 16 by 20 inches, the other 32 by 32 inches.

"This was more of a challenge," he said, estimating the borders alone on a single creation took more than 40 hours to cut.

"You know it's going to be big, but until you put it together, you don't know how big."

He has made four of the larger versions of the prayer, suggesting for proper display, their size calls for them to be in a church or large home.

"The bet is now, 'Is he going to make any more?' "

"I'm done with the big ones," he said.

amannlein@herald-review.com|421-6976