In Montana, I can find Englemann Spruce. Not quite as light (just a little heavier, but not much) or quite as strong (just a little weaker, but not much) as Sitka, but a lot more affordable. If you can find old growth stuff, it's gorgeous.

If you're comparing spruce to cedar, spruce is spruce. Unless you're wanting to compare a sitka paddle to an 'affordable' spruce paddle, you probably won't ever notice a difference.

Shawn

: I've built 2 Greenland paddles from western red cedar with ash tips but this
: time I want to make a laminated one with the main centre beam out of
: spruce .I will take an 8 foot length ,cut a 1"x1 1/2" strip,then
: cut it in half,hollow out the middle with a router and epoxy it back
: together to get a hollow loom.
: Sitka spruce seems to be the choice but very expensive.I have read other
: posts that said regular spruce from a 2x4 stud will work fine.Is that
: white spruce?
: I'm wondering what physical differences there are between white spruce and
: sitka spruce.like weight,strength or the tendency to warp etc.Also the
: salesman at the wood store said lots of paddle builders ask for
: sassafras.He said it was fairly light and the price was reasonable.
: Just curious.
: Bert