Dean H. wrote:

: Try to buy from a reputable source - I hear that there's a lot of wood
: poaching going on with ipe.

: There may be some ethical issues with the wood. Rainforests, etc...
: I'm not too sure about this.

Here's what I think's going on. I'm not an expert on this, though.

Some people in South and Central America have tree farms and sell
lumber. This is OK, ecologically and ethically. But some people go
into nature preserves or the lands of indigenous peoples and cut down
trees and sell them. This is bad, ecologically and ethically, and
apparently there's enough of it going on to really have an effect on
the rain forest.

I'm not sure that there's much we can do up here to tell the
difference. I'd pick a supplier who advertised, "we use only legally
grown and harvested lumber". Some people avoid using any wood for
which there's a black-market, to try to reduce the demand.

(Saw a documentary once on teak poachers in south-east Asia. They
used elephants on speed to move the logs.)

--- Chip