I've got it in my head to carve a greenland paddle. Sunday was a rain day here, so it's off to Lowes, HD, and a local place to riffle the lumber. Only cedar to be found is 1x fencing, and knotty stuff at that. Reracked a unit of studs, nuthin'. Forget resawing 4x stock - if it's 4x, it's a treated deck post. There is clear 1x4 pine, but flat, running grain. The 1x4 doug fir was the highlight of the trip - clear, nice grain, fairly close to quartersawn if chosen well. Wasn't noticeably heavier than the clear pine, tho both were getting up there. So, my options:

1)Epoxy up the doug fir into a 2x4-ish thing and have at it. Will I regret the seam thru the thickness of the blades, and any thoughts on aligning the grain in the glue-up?

2)Same as above, only with the clear pine.

3)Back to the studs, picking one with only a couple dozen penciltip closed knots (i.e. am I being too picky?)

4)Beg, plead, cry, promise beer, or whatever else it might take to get someone to give up the secret source of good softwood around SW Ohio.

Any ideas?