<b>Actually Coach, everyone here is lying to you... that stuff is extremely dangerous... and needs to be disposed of properly... I am certified to handle that kind of work... and since you are a IAP member I will not only do it for free, but am willing to incur the shipping cost of that nasty piece of wood to MD...</b>
YOU LUCKY DOG... the best I ever got free was a piece of 6" cracked burl from a buddy, he meant well and I did get 2-3 pens out of it...
Burls can be nasty to dry, as already stated, but the end results can be spectacular... Cut your blanks oversize, put them in the paper bags, but I don't like putting them on the floor.. I usually put them on a middle shelf in the room because there is less variable in temps at that level..
One other solution is to find one a dryer, like they use to make dried fruit at a yard sale and stack them in it with a fair amount of room between the blanks and run it at the lowest setting... checking the blanks and turning them about every 12 hours..