Hi Rehd
You are right about spalted wood being weaker and also right on the blue pine becoming fashionable (also called denim pine). But, at least with lodgepole, it is from beetle killed pine and was going for less money until it became a designer material because it was from salvage logging. If this is the beetle killed stuff, the strength should be about the same. I'm not 100% on this because I have not seen it in Ponderosa, just lodgepole. I would likely give it a try if it could be confirmed.
take care
don
: Hey Mark..

: Don't quote me on this but it sounds like you've got some Spalted Pine. It's
: really popular for furniture and cabinets, but.... The spalting ( and I'm
: not positive on this... is a disease or rotting of the wood or so I was
: told many years ago ) is light, but fairly weak.

: It will probably work for a boat, since it's coated inside and out with
: epoxy/glass, but I don't think it would have the strength to work as a
: paddle...

: They used to throw that stuff away until some knuckle-head thought it was
: cute and then it became fashionable... As I mentioned, it may not work to
: well where strength is needed.

: I suppose you could test it against some regular pine... ??

: Rehd