Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
Question: How to wrap oarlocks?
Hi there WBP,
I would like to wrap my Sawyer Cobra Oarlocks in stead of wrapping my oars. Any hints out there? Its a little trickier than I thought. The line used would be an 1/8" polyester braided cord.
Thanks for any insight,
Kelly
Views: 3393
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kelly Neu on
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Have you tried these methods? Interesting. Seems like it might create too much friction for feathering?
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Permalink Reply by Brad Dimock on
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Wrapping oarlocks--here's what I remember about how that came about down in Grand Canyon world (Grand Canyon world is an isolated universe that believes it invented everything and the rest of the world revolves around us)....
In the 1970s at Grand Canyon Dories, we had it in our minds that we had to fiberglass the oar shaft to prevent abrading the wood. But then the brass of the oarlock ate right through the fiberglass. So we started wrapping the oarlocks to protect the glass wraps on the oars.
The system was thus: We'd drill a little hole at the top of each horn of the lock. Feed the 1/8" solid-braid nylon cord through one hole, tie it off, then wrap as tightly as possible around to the other side, feed it through and try and finagle it so we could pull the loose end down into the wrap. I always got a blister pulling the wet cord tight.
Then we's epoxy the wrap on the outside of the oarlock to keep it stationary, and impregnate it on the inside of the oarlock with melted paraffin. Unlike the Oregonians who liked the coarse rope oar-wrap, we liked them super-smooth and greasy, so they'd feather at a whim mid-stroke. We'd take a tin can with paraffin on the river with us, usually with a brush melted into it--heat it up and paint more paraffin into the wraps above scary places like Lava Falls. Inevitably we were always dealing with fraying oarlock wraps and the need for a bit more wax on the wraps to keep it all running smooth.
Meanwhile, back in Flagstaff, Brian Dierker started gluing ski-bottom material (P-Tex) around his oarstops instead of fiberglass, eliminating the need for wrapped oarlocks. The brass oarlocks took a few seasons to eat through the plastic, so it was a viable system. The wrapped oarlocks became something of an anachronism. Most of us went with the unwrapped locks and a P-Tex wrap on the oars after that, although some still used both.
In 2002, I was doing a historic replica trip with a lapstrake Holmstrom boat and decided to try leather wraps on my oars. Gotta be authentic, you know. I knew from past experience that if you nail the leather to the oars, the oar would break right there. True. It does. Never nail an oar. So I glued and stitched leather to the oars, then impregnated it with molten paraffin. I figured I'd have to replace it every trip or every few months. Nope. It's still there. It outlasts the P-Tex by years, is smoother, looks cooler (it definitely has snob appeal), and works better. Raw brass oarlocks and waxed leather oarstops. You do have to re-wax it after each trip, but that's no big deal. That is all I have on all of my oars now. In eight years I've never had to replace one. The brass polishes to a mirror finish, and the leather gets a crazy metallic sheen to it as well. And it's so much simpler than all that other stuff.
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Oh, that sounds sweet. You've sold me on the leather oar wraps.
Since you're in the GC world, I feel good knowing, I can continue to revolve around the isolated universe known as Grand Canyon.
Everything on this emerging boat is copied from the Martin clan. Maybe I'll even throw some bottles of Sheep dip in the left side hatch for authenticity.
Thanks for the inspiration.
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When you're ready to do the leathers, let me know and I'll try and write down the system I used. It works really, really well.
Thinking of Sheep dip makes my head hurt, but that's probably a good idea.
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I'm afraid of the stuff myself. I could always use it as a solvent for touching up the paint job.
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cool! I'm gonna treat the oars tomorrow so hopefully will be doing the oar sleeves and stopper soon.
Found some great leather at a wholesaler today.
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Looks thick enough. Good job.
Here's what I do:
Cut a wrap out of the leather that is not quite wide enough to go all the way around the oar--maybe a quarter of an inch short. I make them about 6" long, but my exwife liked them about a foot long.
Get a good hole punch and punch small holes along each edge for stitching it to the oar. I go every quarter inch.
Using a good contact cement--Weldwood or Barge work well--give the inside of the leather a couple coats and the oar a coat. Let that dry.
Get your curved needle ready with some waxed linen or sinew.
Soak the leather in water. This makes it stretchy, and makes the contact cement so it will not stick right away.
Sew the leather around the oar, stretching it tight with a baseball stitch. By stretching that missing 1/4" out of it, it makes a nice tight fit.
Witha ball-pean hammer, lightly tap the seam flat.
Let it dry out overnight. It should be tighter than hell, with the stitching kind of sunk into the leather.
Cut a strip of leather about an inch wide and long enough to make a couple full wraps around the head of the wrap to make your oar stop. Epoxy it on. I wrap it on real tight with saran wrap while the epoxy kicks. I taper the end of this strip so it wraps smooth to the layer below rather than ending bluntly. I also did a little leather tooling on my stops before I wrapped them on, so they have my name and home town on them.
Once the epoxy has kicked, take off the saran wrap or whatever you used to hold the stop on.
Heat some paraffin up to smokin hot and paint it into the wraps and face of the stops until they won't take anymore.
All done.
Before you start rowing, check the inside of your locks to see if there are any rough spots. Sand them smooth if there are. The smoother the lock, the smoother the feathering.
Take a little can of wax and a brush with you if you're doing long trips, in case the leather gets thirsty.
I'll try and remember to take a picture of some of mine up close so you can see the stitching.
When you row by other folks with clunky, raspy, squeaky, stiff oar action, remember what Martin Litton used to tell his passengers: "Try not to look too superior."
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Holy shist. Thanks Brad! This is gold.
What kind of parafin do you use? ...like canning wax? johnson's paste wax?
I'll try not to look too superior when I'm brushing wax onto my oars at Bass camp.
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Just use blocks of canning paraffin. Candle wax.
P.S. Don't try and get overly groovy and use beeswax--it's really sticky and makes for a truly miserable feathering experience. But at least it never goes away!
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Ah, great. I have a bunch of Gulf Wax. I use it on my skis. Its a fraction of the price of hydrocarbon ski wax and works beautifully in all but extreme cold conditions.
I wonder if some of the super slick hyrocarbon or flourocarbon paste/rub on wax for skis/boards would be good for touch ups on the river...
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Here's a Kate Thompson shot of Julius, the Holmstrom replica, after a few thousand miles of rowing. Notice the sheen on the leathers.
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