> Was wondering if red cedar would be strong enough for the inside gunwales
> on a canoe. I will be hanging the seats and the thwarts fron them. Thanks

I used Red Oak on my gunwales and inwhales. I attached the inwhales to Red Oak spacers. This was on an 8ft sailing/rowing dinghy. The gunwales are also attached to the spacers by brass woodscrews as are the inwhales. The spacers are the only part of the system that is epoxied in place. This way, I can remove them when painting the boat and varnishing the inwhales and gunwhales. That Red Oak is very strong and really looks nice. When in place the hull becomes very rigid which is great because I like to row this little boat.