Building Oars Today

[wwaterman]

I'll be posting photos throughout today and most likely tomorrow of me building a set of oars. I'm about to head to the lumber yard to see what they got!

First picture will be the piece of lumber I'll purchase. I'm hoping for an 8/2X8 piece of spruce.

I'm still in need of a good design to follow. Bob, could I get the design of those bea-utes you made?

[Bob Smalser]

I used the pattern found for ash and spruce oars in Woodenboat Issue # 127 (Nov ’95) .

[wwaterman]

Well, good lumber is hard to find in the mountains of Arizona. I could only find spruce in 1X's, so I bought a 16/1X12 and am going to glue them.

Already a mistake, I bet, although I don't know. Please fill me in.

[Thorne]

Well, I was lucky enough to find a 2"x9"x8' piece of spruce at MacBeath's in Berkeley, but your 1" thick piece will fit most of the oar plans you will find online. Bob's web article on oar building was a big help to me.

You can glue and then shape, or just build with 1". With 1" you build the looms from one piece, and each side of the blades with two others -- probably stronger than gluing two 1" pieces together to make a 2" thick piece, as you won't have a glueline down the middel of the loom.

Here is my page on restoring my dory skiff, with the oar stuff at the bottom -
http://www.luckhardt.com/dory1.html

http://www.luckhardt.com/oarplank2.jpg

[wwaterman]

Here's a picture of the wood loosely clamped.

http://thumb18.webshots.net/t/55/555/5/27/43/2618527430102410218GtpIJQ_th.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2618527430102410218GtpIJQ)

Beginner + lumber selection in Arizona = frustration.

Any suggestions on the best way to go about this? I'm thinking that I'll first cut out the shafts and then glue two more glued 2'X2"X2" at one end for the blade.

Most likely not a good idea to have the shaft be glued 1X's... can I make this work?

[wwaterman]

I'm sorry that I always need things explained to me like a 2-year-old. Are you saying build the loom to be 1"X1"?

[StevenBauer]

No problem with the glue line in the center of the loom. Maybe stronger that way. We built the oars for my son's faering that way. We used Tightbond III, no worries.

The next set of oars I build will be hollow birdsmouth construction.

Steven

[Thorne]

Nope, sorry my bad, not enough coffee yet -- the looms should be 2"x2".

You may be able to just cut out the full loom and oar blade shape with your glued pieces, then plane/shape from there as I did. Since my hunk o' spruce was 9" wide I was able to lay them out in the same orientation (both blades at the same end), but you may need to reverse them (depending on woodgrain) so they lay out with a blade at either end.

[wwaterman]

Thanks guys. I just finished the starboard gunwale! Exciting. However, as I finished it up, my thoughts spiraled around building oars.

I was originally thinking that is what I was going to do, Thorne, but would it look pretty if the blades were multiple 1" strips?

Think I'd be losing a lot durability by basically following Dynamite's design instructions, but not having a solid piece of spruce (instead having glued 1" spruce)?

[JBreeze]

Here are some rough dimensions for 7' oars made from pine....you need 8', so leave the blade length the same, as well as the hand grips, and change the taper on the part between the blade and the grips.

http://www.amateurboatbuilding.com/articles/howto/oars/oars.html

I would leave the dimension at the neck of the blade and the shaft at 1.5", though....1.25 seems thin, and you can always grind it back if necessary.

[wwaterman]

Thank Breeze.

Finished starboard gunwale:
http://thumb18.webshots.net/t/69/69/1/82/38/2879182380102410218SWEDUz_th.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2879182380102410218SWEDUz)

But this is what my mind was on, turning these into oars:
http://thumb18.webshots.net/t/55/555/5/27/43/2618527430102410218GtpIJQ_th.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2618527430102410218GtpIJQ)

[JBreeze]

Here is how I'm doing a pair of 8'.....I have the blanks epoxied up, but probably won't do the final shaping until the spring.

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x92/jbreeze_albums/homes020.jpg

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x92/jbreeze_albums/homes019.jpg

I think I used spuice-fir-spruce for the shafts....sometimes the lumberyard plank looks straight and true, and when you cut it, it springs into the banana board (the dark strip you see on the left of the shafts). Bob Smalser didn't have this problem because he has access to great wood, and knows what to look for in the grain pattern. I tried to be careful with the strips and glue-up, but still have shafts that are "bowed" about 1/8".

Hope this helps!

[wwaterman]

That helps very much, breeze. Thank you. I'm going to start working on the pattern right now.

Beautiful, by the way.

[wwaterman]

Camera died and will be charged by the time I finish putting the pattern down for the second oar. It's looking really good.

I used those plans given from amateurboatbuilding and stretched them a bit to make them 8 feet. I made the dimensions: 5"x1" handle/18"x2" square support/36" tapering from 2" to 1.25" rounded to blade/12" from end of 1.25" taper gradually going to 3" thick blade/24" blade going from 3" to 4" at end.

Basically, you'll need to see the picture of the design!

[JBreeze]

Here is another curveball to think about.....are you going to use circle shaped oarlocks or "U" shaped? If "O" shaped, then a 2 x 2" square loom may not fit through the oarloack. There was a recent thread about the different types of oarloacks and the advantages/disadvantages of each.....I use "O" because I often let go of the oars while rowing. (to reel in fish, etc.)

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x92/jbreeze_albums/homes.jpg

[wwaterman]

Thanks again, Breeze. I want to put the oar lock where the oar tapers to 1 3/4", and I WILL be using O-locks. I've seen a few of the forumlas, but could someone explain the formula as if they're explaining it to a 4-year-old?

Here some pictures of the patterns drawn:

http://thumb18.webshots.net/t/64/564/8/65/17/2541865170102410218avSbMY_th.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2541865170102410218avSbMY)

http://thumb18.webshots.net/t/63/463/2/27/62/2623227620102410218kgDZhm_th.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2623227620102410218kgDZhm)

Although a little deceiving by photo, they ARE symetrical.

[JBreeze]

Hi again....I don't have any easy formula, and I just build to what I have....:D Just wanted to point out that depending on the size of the internal diameter of the oarloacks, a full 2" x 2" square might not fit through a 2 1/4" diameter circle oarloack.

I intend to plane off, or round off the corners of my "square" shaft up near the handgrip, so the circle oarlocks will slip on.....there shouldn't be any problem at the position on the shaft where the oarlock will actually be used. Do you actually have the oarlocks on hand, or are you planning to buy them? I tend to be a flea market junky, so I make things fit to the oarloacks I buy. There seems to be a few different diameters in the circle oarloacks available.

If you already have them, just draw the internal diameter on a piece of paper and use a ruler to approximate the largest square you can fit inside. It may be possible that the fat part of the oar shaft will have to be octagonal, rather than square, but that may actually be nicer looking.

No big deal, especially for your 1st pair of oars.....just don't finish them with varnish or paint until you are certain that the circle oarloack will fit over the largest portion of the shaft, up near the grips. Or avoid this potential problem by using the U type oarloacks. I'll try to find the thread about O vs U oarloacks.

[JBreeze]

Here is the thread about open vs. closed oarlocks:

http://www.woodenboatvb.com/vbulletin/upload/showthread.php?t=70122&highlight=oarlocks

FWIW, the ebay oarlocks in my picture have an internal diameter of 2", so I'll have to trim the corners of my square looms, which are already a bit under 2".

Remember, this is your first pair of utility 8' oars.....I'm willing to bet you will make a nice , light pair of bird's mouth hollow shaft oars by next year....ask Tom to send you the plans.

[wwaterman]

Thanks - Tom already sent me the plans :)

You're right. These oars are going hopefully work nicely for 6 months or so until I build a set of birdsmouth.

[Jim Ledger]

Try drawing on your pattern some cross sections to help visualise the final shape before you start to carve. Maybe three sections of the blade, tip, mid and where the top and a few along the loom. The shape should be changing all along and one section flowing into the next.

I'm looking at the pattern and the loom looks wide where it meets the blade. What might be better is a narrower width but fatter the other way, possibly diamond-sectioned with a ridge along the centerline that forms the backbone of the blade. Imagine the blade as a flattened diamond section flattening to nothing at the tip.

[wwaterman]

Thanks, Jim.

I finally figured out where the oar lock will go on the oar and its right around 1 3/4". I'm thinking I'll have a good fit with some leathers and a 2" oar lock.

[StevenBauer]

If the leathers are done right your oars shouldn't pop out of the oarlocks. Where the oars are leathered they make a tight fit in the lock. The button keeps the oar from sliding out. To put the oar in the oarlock you drop the oar in just below the leathers then slide it on. I don't have a picture but I hope you can visualize. :)

Steven

[wwaterman]

Houston, we have an oar blank. After finishing the gunwales today and cutting out one oar blank, now I'm going to drink wine and watch the series!

Thanks for the help folks. This is not over!

http://thumb18.webshots.net/t/58/558/1/34/24/2033134240102410218soswJX_th.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2033134240102410218soswJX)