Oars and Cleaning

There is a connection...

Having decided to make my own oars I have been researching plans and materials. I've got the Jim Michalak article on making oars, the WBF oar plans arrived this week, and I've read Clint's posts describing the dimensions of his oars. While spruce appears to be a unanimous choice if money is not an issue, I am in need of a less expensive material. Other woods suggested for oars include DF, WRC, and "cheap pine."

DF is probably the natural choice after spruce but hearing tales of DF splintering while planing makes me leery.

WRC struck me as being too light and not strong enough for oars. This was based purely on my limited experience with WRC while building the GIS.

Richard suggested making a practice set from "cheap pine" to learn the process. It would also be less costly if I made a mistake with the cheap stuff.

However, this afternoon I was cleaning up a bit. I grabbed three pieces of WRC (19mm x 45mm x 1830mm which is 3/4" x 1 3/4" x 6') to put them in the closet. I held them together (sort of stacked) and I was struck by the heft of the "block" they formed. The cross-section measured 57mm x 45mm (2-1/4" x 1-3/4") which is actually smaller than the 57mm x 57mm cross-section the blank for the oar loom will be. Now, it is true that this sample was only 6' long so the 9'6" oars will be much longer, but it wasn't glued together either. I am impressed enough with today's observation to plan on using WRC for my oars. Glued up the blank will be strong enough. Properly sized and shaped, the oars will be fine.