^I always loved lignum vitae, then one day found a Loveless Archer Chute knife, dated to 1972, with lignum vitae scales, which surprised me - and I grad it. A pic is below. True lignum vitae has been Cites listed for some time now, with fear it will continue to be overharvested and eventually be listed as endangered. Many still use it but because of the Cites issue, others began to switch to Argentine lignum vitae, a cheaper material, also known as Verawood and not a true lignum vitae. But it's difficult to distinguish one from the other. Their grains of each are easily confused for the those of the other. But there is a perfect way to find out if it's true lignum vitae or Argentine. One looks at the end grain.
The image below is end grain from true lignum vitae. Were it Argentine, no grain dot would touch any other grain dot. the end grain is spread apart, unlike true l.v., which is bunched closely together. First, the example of true end grain, magnified 10x, showing the telltale bunching. The second image is that Loveless I mentioned, with the right end grain and that almost olive color in the wood.