: The link says Water Hickory is brittle but when you compare it to White Ash
: which we know can except alot of bending and or impact and recover. The
: Water Hickory seems to have White Ash beat on all fronts except weight and
: then it only weighs slightly more. The bad thing is even getting some of
: these woods. I keep getting side tracked on these tangents and need to get
: back to the important thing, building my kayak.

John,

I know what you mean by getting sidetracked - that's one price we pay for curiosity.

Some cedars are more brittle than others, so I suppose that we would see the same kind of differences among hickories. It sounds like you are making good observations based on the data, and your experience with similar species. When the numbers get pretty close, it's time to look at other factors, like availability, because of the large scatter that is inherent in the properties of wood. The results from individual samples can contradict trends when the properties are similar.

Get back to that Shooting Star - you can think more about new stuff when you're out paddling!

Sam