Making 2.5m traditionally shaped, wooden oars

**Daddles** · 7th October 2009, 05:58 PM

In this thread, I'd like to show the making of a pair of 2.5m (8' 2"), tradionally shaped, wooden oars for my Little Black Dog. The reasonning for making these oars in this length and this style are explained here in my thread about the Little Black Dog, Basically though:
- the length is twice the beam.
- the long, narrow blades with their diamond cross section may not have the power of spoon blades but are less tiring to use

This pattern and build method is based on an article by Jim Michalak. Mine are a different length, do not have the square looms, are designed to use the rubber oar stops readily available here and are designed around the standard sized planks available here in Australia. Essentially though, they're just an Australianised, metricated version of Jim's oars.

I'm using the standard rubber oar stops available here - there are two sizes. I use the larger, 1 3/4" oar stops which have a central hole diameter of 44mm, not the 1 3/4" they claim. You'll need to check your oar stops as there isn't a lot of wiggle room on a standard 140mm plank.Of course, if you're using leathers or something similar, you can make the oar diameter any size you like.

Attachment 118313

Buy, steal, 'obtain' two planks of clear, light, flexible timber - 2700 x 140 x 19 mm.

Yes, you want it 2.7m long, not the 2.5m that the oars will wind up being - this provides you with some material to build a stiffening spine on the blade. Besides, timber yards sell in 0.3m increments anyway

This time, I'm using New Zealand Clear Pine which is very light but may prove to be too soft in use. I usually use Radiata Pine which works well in this length, is harder and slightly heavier, but it's a devil to find clear planks of this size - you have to search through lots and lots of planks. Radiata is about 2/3rds the price and available in any hardware store.

And now to the oars

Richard

**Daddles** · 7th October 2009, 06:13 PM

Essentially, you take your plank, roughly cut out the blade, rip to side pieces off it to leave a central blank, glue the side pieces to the blank, then assault the thing with various sharp tools until it resembles an oar. Easy innit - it has to be if I'm making the things

Here are the basic plans (click on the picture to see the big version):

Attachment 118318

First, draw a centre line down your oar - actually, you only need it for about 1m from the bottom end. Mark out the blades up to where they meet the shaft.

Now mark a line 45mm from either edge of the plank, ending the lines just short of where they meet the blade.

Attachment 118319

At the other end of the oar, mark the centre section 2.5m (or whatever length oar you're making) from the tip of the oar - this will be the end of your oar.

Attachment 118320

Now, carefully cut off the side pieces. Cut as close to the line as you can, as neatly as you can and on the side of the line nearest the middle. Theoretically, the centre section of the plank is 50mm after taking off the 45mm, but you'll loose some of that in the cutting and you need to leave 44mm of meat.

Attachment 118321

The best tool for this is a bandsaw or a table saw with a very thin blade (remember the timber lost in the cut). I was able to do a beautifully neat job using my jigsaw with a side guide fitted - the job wasn't perfect but much better than by hand and I lost about 1mm in each cut.

Hack off the side pieces, then cut out the blade - note, the blades look funny in this picture because I can't read my own notes and cut the darned things the wrong shape

In reality, they don't flare out very much at all.

Attachment 118322

Now, glue the side pieces to the central blank - one on each side please.
The side pieces extend a fair way down the blade - these will become supporting spines for the blades. Don't be tempted to shape these now, they'll find their own shape as you blend them into the blade later.

Attachment 118323

Make sure they're straight because if they're not, you're stuck with it when the epoxy dries (yes, I use epoxy for this).

That's all I've done so far ... apart from cutting the blades to the right shape

Progress will be spasmodic because I'm working on these when I get fed up with working on the boat.

Richard

**Rick_Tatum** · 8th October 2009, 03:57 PM

Good thread. I'm going to eventually need some oars, will refer to this to get them made up.

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