Just my own $0.02, perhaps you can still consider it for "accent" strips (I believe that is what McCarthy calls them in his book, _Featherweight Boatbuilding_).

Paul

: I built the entire hull of my guillemot with aspen. It looks good but lacks
: character. Like you it was my first boat but I found the aspen fairly easy
: to work with. Then I started using the cedar for the deck. I have decided
: that my next boat will be all cedar.

: About the only really good things about the aspen is that it is more dent
: resistant than cedar and being so light colored it doesn't show finish
: scratches at all.

: BTW, the wood hardly darkened at all under my (raka) epoxy.

: Jim