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.
I cut off a piece of apple wood for the bowl to test how dry it was, it felt pretty dry so I put it on the lathe to smooth everything out. After letting it sit for a couple of days I noticed no severe cracking or warping which was good. I turned the bowl and finished it but since there was some chip out at the top, I couldn't flip it around and turn the base. So, I decided to instead carve a flower on the bottom of it. That takes care of the part where the chuck attaches as it had some dinting. The flower came out beautifully and I burned my initials and the year there as well.
She was Very happy to see what I had done and she absolutely loved the flower on the bowl. She said "It looks like an apple flower" which just tied everything together so perfectly. I'm very happy with how this project turned out, although it was challenging at first I was glad everything came together so well.