I posted a few days ago about the same kind of thing. I've tried Ipe a few times (unbacked) and the stuff I had failed like this, where the grain ran off. I just had another one blow up, this one was a backing of ipe on osage, the whole thing broke thru at the handle, but still seemed to follow the runoff. That's why I have my first order of boo in the mail, thought it would solve this!! Marc, do you think the boo "overpowered" his core?