Hi bigcountry, I'm the fella you are referring to. When dealing with Coco Bolo it takes a "Lord of the Rings" guru to figure out what path to follow, even then "s%&t happens".
When I bought the wood for the riser I was assured that the wood had been properly cured and was not fresh but very old. I had a lady I was seeing, undertake the purchase in south America do all the transactions sense she was from there. At the time I was unaware of business practices in south America and just considered it "normal".

I received the wood and it was absolutely AWESOME, however their was absolutely no way to tell if it was cured as far as I knew then (I was assured it was). So, I sent the "Chunk" to O.L. and he used it as he should have. The result is now history, the wood never was cured obviously, or not enough, therefore the complete discoloration!
Who's fault was it, MINE! O.L. went on my recommendation witch he should have and did one dam awesome job! It was not his fault that I had been lied to, the finish failed under the finish he used over time. Hell, it would have failed under any finish!
I still have large pieces of the original "chunk" in a room next to a heat duct and it appears to be the same as the day I received it.

So, what I am getting at is this, if you want to get a piece of really exotic Coco Bolo you better have a dam honest source or lots of time to let it set in the correct atmosphere, maybe 5 years or more hopefully, the more figure the more time.

Just to clear things up, Changeling.