For strippers the preferred wood is softwood. I try to get some kind of cedar, such as western red, northern white or atlantic white. However, I have used pine, and any other straight-grained softwood should work fine. Cedar is the first choice because it is lighter than most other softwoods. Heavier woods are acceptable.

: I am VERY new to the kajak building game (ordered plans from Guillemot last
: week) but I have a question about wood types.

: I have not read the plans yet, or the book (they are both still in the post),
: but most of the web sites I have looked at seem to use hard woods for the
: building. Now, I can understand the esthetical reason for using different
: wood combinations, but I live in Norway and hard woods are VERY expensive
: compared to say pine (this grows on every street corner).

: Is it possable to use pine (or some other softwood) for the
: "majority" of the shell ? Is there any other reasons, apart from
: esthetics, against using a pine like wood - like strength maybe ?

: Many thanks for your help

: /Space