working with green wood

[Bigcountry]

I have a maple tree and a red oak tree in my in my yard. They sometimes drop good size branches and I have turned some nice looking pens from the maple but they have developed splits in the wood after turning and finishing. I also had this happen when I used a piece of rhodendrum that I collected on a hike in the NC mountains. I was wondering the preferred method to drying out natural wood to be able to turn pens from. I have looked at the archives in stabilizing wood not sure that is what I need to do with these blanks. Thanks

 

[DCBluesman]

Cut the wood slightly oversized and remove the bark. Boil the wood for about 30 minutes (if the wood is 1" thick or less), then let it dry for 3-4 days. Pen blank sized wood should be ready to turn.

 

[Bigcountry]

Thank you, I was having a hard time letting all that great wood go to waste. I'll give this a spin.