A local lumberyard has a good supply of "Santa Maria" wood for decking. It has a pleasing colour and comes in long lenghts. Has anyone used this for strip building? How well does it work? I don't know much about the properties of the wood. I know that it is much heavier than cedar but I was only going to use it for a couple of accent stripes. Any other suggestions to get really dark red strips. (Paduk, Bubinga?)

Thanks for your help
JJ