do you mean leave them whole, or split em down the middle or what?(I'm
trying to find the best way to get more wood out of the bits I have, I had
some really beautiful stuff with purple and green streaks, but I got little
out of two crotches and a longer branch, the whole lot of it got big splits
all the way down. and it was drying outside in cool weather.

snip
Another alternative is to leave the wood in logs as long (length) as
possible. The ends may crack but those can be cut off to expose uncracked
wood further in. snip