Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
Oar Handle Treatment?
Hello WBP,
I am wondering how to treat the handles on my ash oars... any ideas out there?
(The rest of the oar is varnished)
Views: 1207
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Peak on
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I don't think oar handles need a lot of treatment. maybe some oil to start (thinned linseed?), but as you use them they'll polish up and maintain themselves with dirt, sweat, boogers and grease. be sure to grease up your hands a couple times a day, which you'll do anyway on any multi-day, and you're golden. I've re-varnished my oars twice now, but have never done anything to the handles...
nice looking boat, by the way! enjoyed following your blog. congrats.
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Permalink Reply by AJ DeRosa on
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Sand them smooth with fine grit and treat with oil. Lots of receipes for "boat soup" on these pages. You don't want to varnish them as they will check and peel and work your hands raw.
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Permalink Reply by Kelly Neu on
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I tried one of the boat soup recipes on my kayak paddle as an experiment. (Linseed/Turp/Varnish) I loved the feel of it...not too slippery, not too friction-y, just right! Its beautiful too. Next set of oars with be oiled for sure.
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Permalink Reply by Brad Dimock on
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In Grand Canyon we always left them untreated. They soon got a nice patina of hand grease, but were always absorbent. Some of us liked to wet our hands just before a rapid, as it gave a better grip. (Buzz Holmstrom described spitting on his palms for a better grip above rapids.) In the early '80s, Rudi Petschek showed up with a pair of motorcycle grips (Harley Knucklehead grips, to be exact). They quickly became popular for those of us with large hands. These eventually got replaced with foam grips, which are now ubiquitous around here. (Although I still have what may be the last pair of Harley Knucklehead grips in the universe on my primary running oars.)(My secondary set is foam, as are my raft oars.) (The Holmstrom boat still runs raw wood and spit.) Much as I like the aesthetics and idea of rowing with raw wood, on those long hard days of pulling in the wind, the foam grips are awful nice!
I do recall from the early '70s onward, having it repeatedly and emphatically driven into my head by "those who knew": "Never EVER varnish your oar grips. Leave 'em raw." Can't say as there was ever an explanation why, though!
Also--I've never known an oar grip to suffer (crack or splinter) from lack of a finish.
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Permalink Reply by Herb Jacobsen on
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If you varnish the handles of your oars you will develop blisters. I know this from experience..... 3 blood blisters on one hand and 4 on the other after my first day on the Middle Fork. I had a friend tell me afterward to sand off the varnish and the blisters would be no more. That was some 40+ years ago.
I too, liked the foam handles when they came out. Those foam units were a real comfort while guiding in the winter.... They also seemed to make it easier on the hands after a long day of pulling on the oars.
When you are guiding fishermen, you spend more time pulling then you do pushing or just floating.......
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Thanks everybody! At least now I can convince my Dad that experienced boatman suggest leaving them raw. I had a hard time convincing him not to varnish the handles. Glad I put up a good fight. Now I just have to convince him not to cut grooves in the handles. Ouch!!
I'm still 50/50 on the foam handles. I'm not very strong so the slight extra squeeze I use to hold onto the foam adds up over the day and my hands get tired. Though, last year, I used some denser foam handles that were really nice! They were on some 11foot sawyer composite oars. The handle was also shaped so that it was thicker in the center and thinned on either side of the hand. My hands were happy all 18 days.
I've seen boatman put surf wax on their oar handles before big rapids. Its real sticky but I wonder if it ever comes off. When I first started rowing I never knew where the rapids were and would always end up applying sunscreen right as a rapid approached... Its like trying to hold onto a fish... I lost my oar a lot. Sunscreen is some slippery stuff!
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Permalink Reply by Lawrence E. Long on
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We just sand them smooth and leave them unfinished here in costal Maine. Buit then again we aren't running "white knuckle" rivers like the Colorado or Green. Why would you want to have the handle slippery? or sticky?
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Permalink Reply by Dave Z on
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Cork tape. the stuff made for road bike handlebars. two rolls will do 4 oars.
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I bought some rasta colored cinelli brand cork tape. it is adhesive backed and sticks like crazy. i find it durable on my road bikes- 2 summers usually I'll get out of my work commuter. On the oars, I've had this stuff for 3 years on one set that gets all the use.
Buy the stuff with a higher cork content.
Try.. www.pricepoint.com look for "bar tape."
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Hmmm. That cork stuff sounds interesting.
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