The more pigments in the stain applied, the more uniform the color of the end deck. A more transparent stain will show more of the natural variation in color of boards. The drawback is that the more transparent the stain, the less protection from sun damage to the wood(natural weathering to grey). The most extreme variation is with a transparent sealer which offers little or no sun protection.

Various posters use TWP or Woodrich stains. TWP Honeytone is a very light colored stain. Woodrich Amaretto is a relatively dark stain resulting in more uniform near mahogany colored boards. Stain should be specially formulated hardwood stain since IPE surface absorbs very little of stain so stain must have high ratio solids to solvents.

Actually ipe takes finish very well there is no problem with what the surface absorbs.

One way to see this is put a brush load of twp 116 on a short of ipe,let it set up, and try to get it off.

J.