: My hardwood dealer in Toldeo gets stock in from a local mill, but he's closer
: than the mill so I buy from him. The cost of the stock is a bit higher,
: but my truck may as well burn money for fuel. Twenties and Fifties.

: m

I've recently finished a greenland paddle using sassafras. Stiffer than WRC, a little heavier though. It is technically a hardwood (deciduous leaf). The open grain was harder to seal using tung oil and I expect the paddle will darken up quite a lot. Sassafras is a preferred wood by one of the commercial paddle companies, can't remember which off hand.

I got my wood from Johnson's Workbench - they have a couple of stores, St. John's and Grand Rapids, I think. They only had 4/4 stock, no 6/4 in stock but they said they could order it.

The boards that I have seen tend to have grain run-in/out around knots. You have to pay attention when planing, not as nice as straight grain WRC.