I just got a shipment of Tigerwood 3/4x4. First box I opened had the characteristic light background, dark striping. Beautiful.  Next box was  (essentially)  a solid dark brown with some striping showing. At all the sites I've looked for Tigerwood I've never seen a sample picture exhibiting pieces that are so solidly dark.   eg: http://www.trbflooring.com/tiger.asp Is this a caveat emptor/dirty little secret of Tigerwood dealers? I've been contacting sites

At all the sites I've looked for Tigerwood I've never seen a sample picture exhibiting pieces that are so solidly dark.   eg: http://www.trbflooring.com/tiger.asp Is this a caveat emptor/dirty little secret of Tigerwood dealers? It's a caveat emptor of just about _any_ exotic or exotic-figured wood.  If you had similarly asked for, say, curly or birdseye maple, or burl or crotch walnut... consistency is going to be a big problem. Wood is a natural product with sometimes very high variation. The only way to get consistency is to hand-pick boards, or, buy batches from people who guarantee consistency.  The latter ain't going to happen from low-bid buy raw lumber by the pallet manufacturers, and the former ain't practical over the phone or Internet. There's a reason why cabinet makers building furniture to show grain, even with relatively mundane domestic woods, often have to hand-pick boards preferably from the same tree. If you need consistency, you're either going to have to buy a lot extra and discard the stuff that's too far away from what you want, or find a exotic lumber place willing to (or will let you) select.  That's what select means, and why it costs more. There's a local mill that sells eastern white cedar.  If you pull them off the stack in order, you pay X/board foot.  If you discard any significant number of boards, it's select , and you pay X+<some percentage around 30%. [Their lumber is quite good actually, so if you're building the typical deck where a reasonable number of tight knots make no difference, you won't need to select . But if you're trying for clear you'll have to dig for it and you pay extra.] There may well be a specific grade designation for consistently grained Tigerwood.  It'll cost more.