making oars

Hi everyone,

I am thinking about making some oars.  There seems to not be a whole lot of information online about it so I thought it would be good to start a thread about my plans and ask for everyone's input and then finalize the plan and build the oars and provide some lessons learned on the process. 

 

I am thinking I will build a router lathe by just making a box and moving the router along by hand while turning the piece by hand.  Not fast, but easy and cheap to build this jig.  I'm still not sure on how I will hold the piece of wood and rotate it.  I'm also not sure if I should laminate the oar with the blade integral or if I should make the shaft and blade separate and epoxy together.  I'm also not sure what kind of fiberglass cloth or Kevlar I should use. 

 

If anyone has built an oar or has an opinion on how to do it, I would really appreciate it.  I'll post pictures as I make progress.  Thanks. 

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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on November 24, 2013 at 10:26pm

Hello Mike, I just did a quick search on the search engine here and found a bunch of links to previous posts. Several people have had great success. Good luck.

Rick N

Permalink Reply by Eric Loudenslager on November 25, 2013 at 8:02am

Rick is correct - there are several threads about constructing oars. If I recall correctly, there are pictures of a router/lathe approach. Also, nice pictures from M. L. Webb of traditional construction using hand planes and spokeshaves.

The traditional method is not difficult - the shaft is marked to transform a 4 sided timber into 8 sided and then shaped with plane or spokeshave, then marked again into 16 sided and then shaped again with plane or spokeshave. The final "rounding" from 16 sided is accomplished with spokeshave, scrappers, and a little sandpaper.

Also do a web search on canoe paddle construction - you will find suggestions for addressing the question of shaft and blade joining. Blades can be rough cut and then attached to shafts, or timbers attached to the shaft and the blade cut using a band or jig saw. In either case, final shaping of the blade will be completed once the blade is attached to the shaft.

Most oars that I am familiar with do not have glass or kevlar laminated to the blade. Canoe paddle blades often do. Glass or kevlar lamination would be warranted only in the case of making a very thin face and edge on a blade - or perhaps a wide blade. If making a wide blade, laminating several narrow strips (say 1/2 or 3/4 inch) will produce a blade with less likelihood of splitting or warping. If narrow strips are deep enough they can be ripped in half on a band or table saw to make book matched blades.

I've used both epoxy adhesive and titebond III to construct paddles and oars.

Permalink Reply by Phillip Westendorf on November 25, 2013 at 5:20pm

Mike,

If you look on Utube you can find a couple of Oar Lathes that use a router.  From there you can get some design ideas.  They're pretty simple.  A word of caution, your statement "while turning the piece by hand"  can, no will be a problem.  The rotor turning at high speed causes a bunch of torque and the cutter WILL grab the shaft and dig in, don't ask me how I know.  It is really a safety issue.  

When you design these kind of things you need to look beyond the individual pieces and how they fit together and work together, you MUST take into account the dynamics of what they do.

I saw a recent video there where a drill motor was used to rotate the workpiece on a table saw, which did the cutting.  Maybe leave the handle or blade end a little long and drive or glue a 1/4 inch screw with the head cut off and use a 3/8 drill to turn the shaft while you control the router with both hands.

Looking forward for more, 

Dorf

Permalink Reply by Mike Balch on November 25, 2013 at 7:25pm

Thanks, that is good advice.  I will check out the videos.

Permalink Reply by Josh Blake on November 27, 2013 at 11:31pm

In addition to all of the advice above you may consider buying a book on canoe paddle building. The one I just purchased from amazon has a wealth of info on blade design and construction. I purchased it to use as a progression from paddle to oars as well as getting a better handle on my hand tools before screwing up my planned boat build. It gives a good breakdown of how to lay out the shaft and blade in an organized manner. The last thing you want to do is take a 100 dollar piece of nice ash and screw it up trying to build it off guess work. Just a thought.

Josh

Permalink Reply by Lawrence E. Long on November 28, 2013 at 4:22am

Mike:  The boys have given you a lot of good advice.  There is a book by R.D. Culler that has a chapter on building oars.  He is long gone and the book is out of print but  if you can find one.  At the moment I am in VA getting ready to stuff myself with turkey but when I get back to ME  send me your e-mail and I will send you a zerox of the chapter.

Happy Thanksgiving

Permalink Reply by Mike Balch on December 1, 2013 at 6:54pm

thanks Lawrence, I will send my email to you. 

Permalink Reply by Lawrence E. Long on December 3, 2013 at 5:16am

Mike:  Back in ME for the winter-no snow yet.

Permalink Reply by Mike Balch on December 3, 2013 at 11:55am

Lawrence,

I can't send you a message yet.  my email is mike.balch1@gmail.com.  Thank you for the help

Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on December 3, 2013 at 8:06pm

Hello Lawrence and Mike,

Tonight I was on Amazon.com looking up a transaction and found out that the Culler book is available for $24.?? or so. Might be worth having the whole thing.

Rick Newman

Permalink Reply by MAS Epoxies on December 9, 2013 at 8:11am

One of our customers had recently sent us the oars that he had just finished. They turned out great. Thought I'd share for inspiration.

Cheers

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Permalink Reply by Mike Balch on December 10, 2013 at 7:53pm

wow! those are really nice.  Thanks for posting.

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