In my experience the wood for pens needs to be well on the dry side. even moisture content that woudl be fine for other projects will crack in alot of the pens. I would think this is due to how thin the wood gets. think of paper being wrapped around a brass tube. the damper it is the more likely it is to tear. this picture helps me alot when desiding how dry to get a blank. I was reading the other day about bowl turners Boiling their rough turned bowls and then letting them dry for 3 months (wood being 1 inch thick). I've gotten advice from Bill Baumbeck that a pen blank may need to dry for as much as a year. Boiling or microwaving will speed this up, as well as freezing.
HMMM anouther article idea.
the idea behing boiling and freezing (seperate methods) is that the wood cells have sap, juices and other moisture causing stuff in them. both freezing and boiling rupture these cells and the moisture is able to escape more readily.
Boiling is done for 1 hour for every 1inch of wood thickness. this means 1 hour of full boil per inch. then pulled out and covered with a cloth tarp or towels while it enitially dries. (3 days) then treated as you would any other drying wood. Paper bags or whatever you prefer.
Sorry added the info about boiling for those that read this and go
!!!Boiling!!!
Just think, Snakewood Soup mmmmmmmm delicious.
Maybe we should start a recipe book