I've decided to build a new (kick up) rudder from scratch for my dory similar to the ones shown below.

Any reason to not use whatever 3/4" hardwood I can find locally (northern Mich), like white oak? (or does it need to be thicker than 3/4" hardwood or some other specific wood?)  

I do have a piece of Okume I was going to use for a fore deck in my dory but I could use that and layer up multiple pieces to whatever thickness is needed for both parts of the rudder as shown below..

Thoughts?

PS: I will still be using a tiller extension from the original CLC dory design, not a straight forward tiller as shown in these pictures but the new tiller will go through a square hole in the rudder and have a peg on the other side to hold it in so I'm thinking that area of the rudder will need to be (?) 1-1/2" to 2-1/4" thick?

Thanks

Curt