I cut most of my wood for the bigger planes from white pine. By going through the 1 X ?? boards at the local lumber yard (you do need a lumber yard that lets you select the boards you want) I find a lot of boards that I can get 6 to 10 foot clear straight close grained material out of. True, more knots than on other types of wood but, by careful selection you can find very useable areas that you can cut stringers and spars from. It is almost as strong as Spruce and works out very well. I use a 10 inch table saw (a 40 year old Sears) that I can cut pieces as small as 1/16 square on up by using a hollow ground blade and a zero clearance insert on the saw.