That looks like a medicine bow woods stave... Which means it won't be remotely seasoned. If you got it from Dave, don't start bending it for a good month or two. And as NewIndian said, check the grain. He likes to bandsaw everything.
Looks nice though, should be a good bow once it's dry!
Edit: By the way, those don't look like drying checks. It's hard to see from the photos, but based on where they are in the stave (drying checks are usually at the ends) and how that particular one looks, I'd say that's a wind shake. They can be bad news (which may be why the stave was so cheap?) as they tend to go right down to the core of the branch/trunk. Fill it with superglue before you carry on, and pray they don't go too deep.
