Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
Rebuilding an Oar
While building my boat I had collected five oars. None of them were much good but I didn't spend much. On my way back form the Wooden boat Festival my good buddy Rick Atwood, a talented outdoorsman and drift boat builder said he had a good deal for me. I stopped by and he pulled out a pair of Sawyer Light oars. I had just tried a pair of sawyers that Randy Dersham had loaned me for the parade and decided I really liked them but could afford them. I picked this pair up for $50. Only one small problem: Yes, there was rot in one of them. I like a challenge so I said yes and brought them home. Most of the rot was along a couple sections of the clear vertical grain Douglas Fir. You can see the line that runs right across the main hole. This is evidence that some sort of boot used to be on the oar. I have a feeling that damage occurred under the boot, water was introduced and never dried out. The appropriate bacteria found its way into the wood and the rot commenced. The other oar is fine.
The first step that I under took was to try and remove the rotted wood. I found that it was more extensive than it appeared, a good lesson when dealing with any rot. I eventually decided to tear apart the oar with the intention of scarfing in some pieces. I also endeavored to cut out what I thought was a chunk of wood that ran across the tip of the blade. A word of warning. This is not a slice of wood, it is a chunk of galvanized screen covered with epoxy. Carefully with your Japanese pull saws if you try this.
This didn't work out so well so I decided to reduce the oar to the solid pieces and scarf new Douglas Fir to the rotted center sections and laminate more fir to the center and add Ash to the sides. A trip to the local Windsor Plywood and I had both materials.
Here a few pictures and comments to go with them:
Here's the cut down oar with just good wood left. There were actually some soft spots all the way up the oar quite a distance from the initial rot. I have placed epoxy thickened with some thixotropic fairing material. I am well experienced with sandpaper so I think I can return the surface to the original scarf angle of approximately 8 to 1.
Here's a side view of the oar and the angle I am working with. I measured and cut oversized repair pieces to replace the rotted wood and the additional pieces to laminate next to them. I had to plane all the surfaces so they were parallel and also planed the remaining oar's sides parallel.
The four pieces of fir that make up the scarf were clamped together and the angle cut into them with a pull saw. I still had to even the surface out with my stationary belt sander with the following results.
Side view of the oar and the replacement wood. I have left extra wood so that I can remove it to get to the final shape.
I choose to epoxy the replacement wood into one piece as it seemed easier to only have to glue in and align one piece rather than four when I scarf it. I mixed the System 3 epoxy with West system fairing material to help fill any gaps. I tried to just use enough pressure to get squeeze out and then smeared excess epoxy all over the surface to fill in any gaps. I haven't gone back out to see how it has faired as I am enjoy the Indy 500 too much!
Before I epoxied the scarfing materials I did a test fit of all the materials. I left them thicker so I can sand and plane them to shape. I'll post more as I progress.
Rick Newman
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John Lell on
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Interesting repair job. I've used Sawyers for years, and there is really no substitute. They are a joy to use relative to other oars. Expensive but worth it. I hope that your repair renders the bargain oars as functional and sturdy as the originals.
John - 17' Don Hill Flyfisher, 17.5' Tatman,
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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on
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John, that's what I'm hoping. I may even sheath them with fiberglass and epoxy, I have a lot of options left over from the boat build. The new one's that Randy let me use had lots of fiberglass and epoxy strategically placed. That should keep some of the damage down. If these don't work I will have to build my own as I don't have the bucks for new ones.
Rick N
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With the help of System III epoxy, my belt sander, a few clamps, three different hand planes, a Random Orbit sander, hypoid drive saw, my buddy's band saw, my saber saw, a 1/4 sheet finish sander and a cabinet scraper I now have a pair of nice Sawyer Oars. Oh and a little bit of time and a fair amount of sandpaper!
When I last posted I had posted the picture above that showed the old oar with the new Douglas Fir and White Ash laminated to it roughly.
Here is the laminated oar as compared to the other oar. So it's time to cut it to appropriate length, reduce the thickness to the thickness of the other oar and then cut to shape. I didn't photograph most of those processes but below are the results prior to refinishing.
So a little more epoxy and some wood dust and the apparent defects were repaired.
An interesting thing that Sawyer does to reinforce the tips of their oars is to cut a slot parallel to the surface of the oar and epoxy in an insert of 1/4" galvanized wire screen. Cutting the slot with any of my saws was going to be a pain so I took advantage of a friends Jet bandsaw and endeavored to replicate Sawyer's process. If you have worked with a bandsaw before you know that unless you have a very wide saw blade, wider than the 1/4" or 3/8" blade we used you know it will wander. So while the cut was centered and correct on the top side of the blade it wasn't quite the same on the opposing side. I wasn't going to do all that work over and so I just went ahead and mixed up the epoxy, wood flour and some graphite to make it dark like Sawyer does. Epoxy drips through the openings in 1/4" screen, however I made it thick enough that I could get some to stick and to also push it into place with the help of some plastic shims that I used to wedge the opening. So while it was a messy operation I feel that I got a lot of epoxy in the slot sufficient to hold the oar together and reduce damage in the future. No pictures cause I don't want black epoxy on my nice camera! After it dried I noticed I didn't have a much as I wanted and that I had to take my small nippers and cut back the edges of the exposed screen.
So a little more epoxy and wood flour some sanding and I am ready to finish the oar.
So both oars would be the same I sanded them both down in preparation of multiple applications of Dailey's Seafin Teak Oil. Thanks AJ, Kevin and Dutch for the suggestion. I use it on furniture in my house and also on my gunnels, chine cap and such. It's been hot around here so it has been easy to apply the oil with a rag, sand it in with some 400 wet or dry and repeat often.
Here's the repaired one looks while we floated a section of the Clearwater River in Idaho on Friday afternoon.
I need to keep applying more oil and sanding to get to the quality of finish I want. However they work like a charm and I am happy with the repair. Thanks Rick Atwood for the deal on the oars!
PS here's the oar that I started with:
Rick N
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Permalink Reply by Rick Finnell on
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Good job on the oar. Let's see some pictures of your new boat on the drift. Rick F
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Okay, not much whitewater. We were "Looking for Lewis & Clark". This short voayge of 12 miles was a precursor to a series of trips designed to privide access to picture taking sites for my associate. www.lewisandclarktoday.com is Kris's multiyear effort to photographically document campsites the country that Lewis and Clark's Voyage of Discovery stayed at and traveled through. He has pictures of many of the sites that he can reach by foot and by car in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. However since they traveled by water for much of their journey some sites can only be reached by boat. Or since in some places there is a highway with no easy access to the river such as the Clearwater I will be employed occasionally to provide transport to such sites.
This October we will return to the Clearwater for a two day float and early morning photography. Kris is an excellent computer science instructor, web site designer and photographer. Combining those skills, lots of practice and patience combined with his passion for all things Lewis and Clark has taught him a great deal about researching the path's that they traveled, where campsites were, how to take pictures at the right time of day and to use his computer and Photoshop skills to remove traces of modern development from his pictures. Contrails, powerlines, rip rap, railroad tracks and bridges need to either be avoided or removed. So I am providing the transportation to a variety of campsites along rivers over the next few years.
So instead of whitewater or fish pictures I'll share the results of my photographic view of our short trip.
Kris T. and some of the issues he has to avoid, rip rap and a guard rail along the river. For those that aren't familiar with the Clearwater River it is formed by several rivers traveling west from the top of Lolo Pass at the Idaho Montana state line. It meets the Snake River in the Lewiston Clarkston area at the washington Idaho state line.
It looks at lot like this along much of it's length:
Looking downriver to the west about 25 miles or so from Lewiston. We saw a few critters along the way. A couple of whitetail deer does with fawns and three Blue Herons. Here is a apparently a mother and a chick or younger bird as it was smaller.
There aren't many sandy beaches along the river but their are a few and they are nice. A lot of the river bottom area is covered with grass, brush and trees. Occasionally you can see detrius of past civilizations and their old structures. Check these items out:
Kris and I wondered if Lewis and Clark's party stopped here in this stone and concrete structure.
Okay Rick F, here you go. Boat in the water pictures!
I am very happy with my boat and how it handles. I still have more details to attend to, floorboards and installing the anchor release and some paint issues. I also solved my boat to the trailer alignment issues I initially had with two 4 x 4" pieces of cedar fence post. I still need to chamfer the side that faces the side of the boat and then cover them with more of the same black carpet used on the rest of the trailer. Pictures later.
Rick Newman
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Permalink Reply by Phillip Westendorf on
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Rick,
Nice job on the oars thanks for taking the time to explain the process. I am sure it will be helpful to someone in the future.
Also a n interesting project you are supporting, documenting the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Good work, boat looks nice too. Keep the cards and letters coming.
Dorf
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Dorf, you are most welcome. How was the Tall Ships event? Lots of interest in your boats and craftsmanship?
Thanks again.
Rick
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