The club visited Mark Sillay's shop in Stone Mountain on April 10th. Mark's Shop is in a commercial building just off of highway 78. Mark has several lathes (Jets and Powermatics) and is very active in wood turning. He teaches turning classes as well as sells his pieces. One of the most fascinating things about his shop is the amount of wood around the shop. There is a hugh amount of exotic wood in storage bins in a warehouse behind his shop. A large amount of this wood is imported from Australia . However, Mark has a equally huge pile of logs outdoors behind the warehouse. Everything from ambrosia maple to walnut. Mark gave an excellent demonstration on using a chain saw to cut blanks out of logs. He also talked a lot about reading a log to determine the best way to cut out a bowl blank with the best grain pattern. He proceeded to cut a piece of walnut crotch to show the grain pattern inside. Mark then cut up a piece of box elder to show the typical colored pattern inside. Finally Mark cut off a section of ambrosia maple and took it back into the shop and turned an end grain bowl from it.