Last year I was given some King Apple wood from a tree over 80 years old, it was covered in nice sized burls and I was very excited to start using it. I tried making a bowl out of a piece not long after getting them but it warped pretty badly so I had to wait awhile until it was dry. A few months later I cut off a big piece, turned a basic bowl shape on the lathe and left thick side walls so it wouldn't crack so easily. It ended up still cracking so I decided to fill it with some resin. Sadly, as I was turning it on the lathe it broke where some rot was.
After all that I decided to wait until the wood was more dry and there was little to no chance of splitting. Finally this year I decided to try and test the wood so I made a pen holder. It didn't crack or warp and I got a very nice live edge on it that I was very happy with.