: I'm starting my first Greenland paddle tonight, and after looking around at
: wood options it got a bit confusing. I ended up picking up a quartersawn
: stud grade 2x4x8' that was totally clear, figuring if I got the wrong
: thing I'm out all of $1.95.

: Can somebody provide a brief description of what constitutes good and bad
: wood? I assume knots are bad (but not how bad), and I know the relative
: differences between pine, WRC, etc. from reading here, but that doesn't
: translate well to identifying "good" versus "bad"
: individual pieces of wood.

: Thanks!

You can make a GP from almost any wood, lighter thought generally is better. Most "white woods" (hate that term) are the heavier of the woods available as it's more common. Sometimes you can find spruce in the mix and it's a nice light and strong softwood but has little color to be interesting and often has lots of tiny pin knots. Planning thru knots is a pain and dulls decent tools.

Most people use WRC, western red cedar, since it's usually fairly easy to find and relatively inexpensive and quite light and easy to carve. Finding it clear at a reasonable price is a trick though.

The wood sample ideally would have fairly close growth rings (not common) and be dead straight with very little if any grain runout. You really would prefer the grain to run the length of the paddle blank and be straight. All this narrows the search considerably.

Bill H.