Oar leather placement

[capt jake]

OK, I read somewhere about the 'proper' placement of ora leathers. I think I remember to place the center of the leather at 7/25 of the length of the oar.

I realize they should be centered on the lock, I guess more importantly related to this; how critical is the placement of the button (as this will also determine placement of the leather)? Is to be placed to continually ride against the lock? Or is it just there to prevent the oar from sliding furhter out intermitantly?

[Bruce Hooke]

The button should NOT be place to ride against the lock. You want to be able to adjust the oars a bit in and out depending on rowing style. They are just there to keep the oars from going into the water.

One method I've come across for getting the right leather placement is to go for a row with the unleathered oars and note where the oarlocks are rubbing against the oars and then center the leathers on that spot. I suppose you could even get really clever and do something like put some masking tape on the oars in the area where the oarlocks are going to rub, because the locks would likely leave a mark quicker on masking tape. Of course the tape should come off before the leathers go on. If the leathers are decently long then you don't really need to be that precise anyway with your placement of the leathers, but many of the commercial oar leather kits are pretty short so you have to be a bit more careful with the placement.

[capt jake]

Thanks Bruce! That's what I was thinking, just needed a little confirmation.

Thanks again,

Jake

[Tom Hunter]

I just put on really long leathers.

Tip: put some elmers wood glue on them when you sew them up, it will prevent them from sliding around, but it won't form a permanent bond with your varnish, so the leathers still come off easily and its not more than a few minutes to clean off the residual glue if you need to.

It's a much better solution than using copper nails which let in water and eventually weaken the oars.