The nicest wood I have used was some old growth western red cedar. It was very tight grained, beautiful, and really nice to work. This puts me in a moral quandry, because I would rather let old growth wood continue to be old and growing, but the wood was really, really nice.

Western red cedar and northern white cedar are pretty much on par with each other. On average western red is probably slightly better, but good white beats the average red. Redwood is right in their with them, but given equal accessiblity to any wood, I would use red or white cedar.

> I am planning on building a strip kayak, I have access to redwood since I
> am from the northcoast of california. But I was wondering, if money was
> not the object what would the best wood material be, to build my boat. I
> have heard that mahogany is dense,strong yet light. If you had the choice,
> and money was not that serious of an option, which wood material would you
> choose? By the way, I am planning on building the Guillemont. Any insight
> would be appreciated!