Well, there's Skollawood for one, obviously (thank you for that opportunity to plug my product 🤣🤣 it felt tacky to say it without prompting 😂😂)...
...but there's also:
...various other cypress species (Hinoki is a particularly fragile wood compared to other cypress trees like macrocarpa... (In fairness though, the grain in macrocarpa isn't nearly as straight as hinoki)
Okoume / Gabon was the one ply wood of choice in the early 20th century before Hinoki became popular. Similar spin, speed, springiness and weight to Hinoki, and a downright killer medial wood in its own right.
...what else 🤔...
Several australian species of araucaria are pretty springy - hoop pine for example (NB: not an actual pine) is a pretty decent Hinoki substitute in a medial layer if you can find a the right piece of it -- (wouldn't make a one ply from it though, as it's a bit heavy). Norfolk island pine is another candidate, though cutting viable wood from between its regular massive knots is frustrating and drives you absolutely nuts, not to mention creating a LOT of waste in the proces, hence I don't use it very much.
Western red cedar in a one ply is pretty damn close to Hinoki in speed, spin and playing feel, and just like Araucaria and okoume it's a great medial wood with genuine 'pop' to it. (Port Oxford cedar is probably a bit too heavy, but would also come close in terms of speed).
Some folks make one plys from ayous and Kiri too, and I can't deny they can make a nice one ply... But while they're good one ply blades, I wouldn't really consider them as a true Hinoki substitute, as their playing feel just differs too much to call them a true substitute.
I also have a really LOVELY piece of 9mm thick, low-density European white ash in my workshop, that has a really damn lovely impact response to it. Haven't tried making a One-Ply from White Ash yet, but the dynamic bounce, speed, and soft vibration I get from this particular piece has me seriously contemplating it 😁😁
There's probably many other potential candidates I haven't discovered or tried yet apart from the above --- (something to look forward to I guess ☺️☺️) ...but at time of writing however, for my money Sköllawood and cypress are the two best Hinoki alternatives. Out of of all the ones i've mentioned off the top of my head, these two woods come closest to reproducing not just hinoki's massive speed, spin and control, but also that gorgeous buttery playing feel it has.
I freely admit Hinoki will always be special stuff with a playing feel that's virtually impossible to match -- but I also feel that it's propensity to break easily makes it a less than ideal choice for a one-ply blade, compared to stronger species like cypress or Skollawood
(NB: as I've said many times, given the time and investments I've made into developing Skollawood as a One-Ply material, I'm far from impartial on this particular subject ☺️☺️).
