: Actually, I was referring to solid luan, not plywood. A friend of mine has
: about thirty board feet (mostly 1x4)and he wants to use it for accent
: strips on the kayak he is building.

It should be beautiful. With the extensive use of the plywood versions of this species we know that it takes epoxy nicely, and that it looks really good when finished.

If you can weigh a sample 1x4, and then weigh a sample 1x4 of red cedar which is the same length, you can get a rough idea of what the difference in weight will be. For example, if your lauan board is 30% heavier than the red cedar board, then your strips will be 30% heavier. That doesn't mean that your entire boat is going to be 30 % heavier, though. Just the wood parts. Your glass and resin will still weigh the same (about 10 to 15 pounds) regardless of the wood used.

And with 30 BF of lauan you'll probably need to add some cedar or redwood, which will lighten things, by weight, but may provide some color contrasts.

Are you thinking of doing both the hull and deck with the lauan, or just the deck?

PGJ