Thursday 1 April 2010

Four oars


It started with a thick plank of Russian pine. I knew Onawind Blue’s new oars were in there somewhere, it was just a question of getting them out. I took up Mr Mushroom’s offer of cutting out the rough shape on his bandsaw. Then I managed to borrow an electric plane and took off the wood around the oar blades and looms.

I thought things couldn’t get any better when another carpenter friend lent me a spoke shave. With this marvelous tool I revealed the shafts and the handles. And there they were, a pair of long, elegant oars. It only remains to take off a little more wood with 100 grit sandpaper.

The handles are long in the hope that I’ll try OB as two-man rowboat.

Maybe she will fly.

3 comments:

Dale said...

Now that is a change of gearing! It will be very interesting to see how the increased blade area, and length work.

Ben said...

Yes, these oars are planned for getting higher speed in flat calm conditions. I think that in wind and waves I'll still be better off with the shorter oars.

Meizhen Xu said...

This is a great post, thanks for sharing it.