Oar Making

[Tom Hoffman]

I have been thinking again about oars for my Whitehall. (sometimes not always a good thing).

Has any one experimented with making the oar shaft out of 6 or 8 pie shaped wedge segments.

I have been looking at router catalogs, and they feature 22-1/2 and 30 degree bevel bits used for making barrel tops for trunks or cylinders etc.

I was thinking that if I ran 1"X 3/4" strips by on both sides of the strip, I would end up with a strip 1" wide at the base and 2 30 degree bevels on the sides running the length of the strip make 6 of these and put them together with glue and I would end up with a 6 sided cylinder approx. 1 1/2" to 2" in diameter (depending on the thickness of the boards to start with. Then I could build a cradle to hold so one of the exposed edges glue line would be horizontal to the table and run it by a straight router bit and add another facet and get a somewhat smaller cylinder with 12 sides for a portion of the lower part of the oar and I would have an oar with 6 and 12 sides and the upper part of the loom turn out on my lathe to a smooth cylinder down to the leathers and button. Start the faceted sides below the leathers.

Does that sound like it would work. I am planning on trying it with Ash as it is the one local wood that would have lineal strength to withstand the longitudnal flexing in an oar, or perhaps Hackberry, very strong and very light. Intertwined grain like elm.

Let me know your thoughts.

Tom....

[Bruce Hooke]

It sounds to me like it would work but I guess my first question is what advantage does it offer? It seems like it could easily take more time to do all that shaping and gluing than it would to just make a shaft out of solid wood.

If you do want to make an oar shaft out of segments you might want to consider the birdsmouth approach. This would likely be a lot easier to glue up because the pieces self-align.

In either case, how do you plan to make the blade of the oar? One option would be a bent piece of plywood if it's spoonblades you're after. This does make a light oar, but not such a pretty oar IMOOP, and the plywood is also rather volnerable to getting wacked on the edge, which can break the finish and allow water in, which leads to nasty things in plywood!

[Tom Hoffman]

Bruce, Thanks for the response. In Iowa, we have very little wood that I would consider using for much of anything. Most native stock is cut to 4/4 stock, as it takes too long in small kilns to dry 8/4 stock.

If I went to the lumber yard, I could not pick out spruce instead of pine to save my life. The birds mouth idea sounds good. I was also looking at a new lock miter bit set up do 22 1/2 degree, that would give me 8 sides to start with. Then I could go to 16 which would almost be completely round but have the nice facets.

I was thinking about taking a long scooping cut on the end of the shaft to allow for a spoon blade to be glued in. I was thinking of using white oak and walnut stripes for contrast gluded up and sanded down to 1/4" and then steam bend them in to shape. Then add some stainles steel tip covers over to protect the ends from damage.

If some one can tell me how to pick out spruce, let me know and I will go looking.

I was also thinking about making a starter set of oars from the round stair banisters that have a small flat on one side. That would probably work good, if I could pick out a spruce pair instead of pine.

Tom......

[videoguy]

Tom YOU might be interested in the oars I made for Pas De Dux my 20 foot dory.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/p8df94ee901eb482d3f77f771f48569f5/f4573525.jpg
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/p3848bd64b090d815ac3449dc652e582e/f4573521.jpg
The blades are made from 1/8 aircraft ply I got in a hobby shop and the looms are made of mahogany. I made them 8 feet but I cut them down to 7 feet after the first year of use.They have stood the test ot time very well there at least 14 years old... smile.gif smile.gif smile.gif .....Phil Oh what the heck I might as well put in a shot of my dory to.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid10/p00deb6324c472e643083bd874a735bd0/fe08adf0.jpg
smile.gif smile.gif

[Bruce Hooke]

To tell you the truth, for a set of oars I would probably not worry that much about whether the wood was spruce, pine or fir. I would just find the best stuff I could in the SPF pile of 2x stock. Or, if you want something stronger, if a little heavier, see if you can get some decent douglas fir.

That said, the method of making spoon blades illustrated in videoguy's post is certainly well established so if you want spoon blades that might well be a good way to go -- I think this is basically what you have in mind. Still, I'm not sure I would go to the trouble of making a glued up shaft...

Edited to add...gluing and then steambending is problematic. Epoxy will not stand up to steaming so you need to use something like Resorcinol, which usually introduces unwelcome color to the glue joint. If you want a decorative pattern on the blade and want thin, bent spoon blades I would probably look into using plywood with veneer laminated to the faces, or simply laminating the blades from veneer.

[ 04-25-2005, 09:40 PM: Message edited by: Bruce Hooke ]

[Tom Hoffman]

Thanks Video Guy....

Those oars look just like the ticket. I would like to make some just like them.

Thanks all for the help.....

Tom....