Hi Kevin,

Be careful comparing wet vs dry wood. Yes, when green, Aspin can easily be broken. However, afer drying, it is tough and can be hard. (My experience is that fresh cut Aspin is very heavy, similar to Pine, both have a lot of water)

The coloring varies, out of 2k bf I put on our cabin ceiling, maybe 5 to 10% was clear and white, the rest had streaks of reds and browns, and knots. If you buy it at a lumber yard and it is not graded as "clear", or you get it from a logger, you will look at a lot of boards to get clear, light ones for building. Also, many of the boards I had were similar to Birch in "hardness", though some were moderately soft.

If you want pure "white" go to our favorite place HD (not), here they sell clear Aspin.

All of the woods discussed, except the pines, are "Hardwoods", this doesn't mean that they are "hard" wood however.

I suspect that the logs that decay fast in the woods do so because they have a lot of water in them. Fallen Birch is rotten in about 2 years, Aspin in about 5, both have or retain water. Note that beaver wood, bark stripped Aspin, tends to not rot so fast. Don't know what Poplar does.,

You can make a boat out of any kind of wood, just remember to have fun doing it.

Dan