I'm not familiar with This wood type. I'll bet I've seen it and just thought it was artificial, as most outdoor projects seem to be. I am also interested it playing around with some of it. My neighbor put in a new floor. A beautiful highly grained wood.
I collected some of his scraps, thinking I could make some knitting needles on my mini lathe. Everything I did with it was a disaster. It was so darn hard and it splintered easy. I asked what it was and someone said Bamboo. If it was, it sure fooled me.
Anyone know what bamboo wood or IPE is like to work with using shop machinery?