Drying timber for project?

[Lee13]

Hi, I'm new to woodworking so I'm sorry if I post anything that you'd expect someone to already know.

I have a piece of timber which I got from a friend of the family. Her husband passed away not too long ago and she's getting rid of some of his things. The timber has been air dried but she doesn't have a clue how long for. It has splits in it, which is what was wanted for the project (a table with coloured resin poured into the splits) I'm now thinking, upon moving the completed table inside the timber will dry out more and shrink, causing gaps to open at the sides of the resin. Is this correct? and if so, how can I dry out the timber? I read online air drying requires roughly one year per inch of thickness of the wood; the piece I have is about 3.5 inches thick. Does that mean I'll need to wait a couple of years or is there a way I can dry it faster without a kiln?
Again, I'm sorry if I've asked anything that seems stupid.
Thanks.

 

[RobinBHM]

Hi welcome to the forum.

There is no way to know. Was the piece of wood stored inside a dry space or outside?

You could put it in the house somewhere cool like a spare bedroom and keep an eye on it.

The splits may or may not increase, but the wood could cup or twist. What pattern is the end grain - it may give you a clue.

 

[Fitzroy]

i had some ash from a local guy and cut a piece off, weighed it on some accurate kitchen scales then dried it in the oven and reweighed it, from that I could calculate the moisture content. I then stuck it on the side in the living room and left it for awhile, weighed it every few days until it stopped gaining weight. Based on this I figured it was about 19% as received and would eqalise to about 13%, I then brought the boards to make a coffee table into an unheated room in the house, weighed them and worked out how much they needed to loose in weight until they would be equalised to the house. I charted their weight and stepwise increased the temperature in the room when I saw the drying rate slowing. Boards were about 2 inch thick, 10-12" wide and 4' long, and it took about 4 months to eqalise them. They were lying in a back bedroom with 1/2 inch stickers, some draft but not a lot. Didn't get much end splitting, nor cupping, but a fair degree of bow set into several boards.

Fitz

Ps I'm no expert in this and that was my first time but that's what I found.

 

[Lee13]

Thanks. What would I be looking for in the end grain as any suggestion?