Making the oar's handle

Today we braved the cold to work on the oars for the river skiff.
The blanks were first trimmed to the profile we designed.  The band saw is almost ready to use.  But today we were limited to a jig saw.
After the blades had their rough shape we ran them through a radius router bit. Then it was back to the bench to form the handles.
Here is a video of that process:

Tools used are a 7 inch variable speed disk sander with a 36 grit disk.

We also used a 6 inch orbital sander with 80 grit paper.

Additional sanding will be needed but the handle took 6 minutes to form.

During my visit to Hemel in Seattle I saw Steve forming surfboards.

It was a revelation to see this.  He used this type of disk sander and had the speed very slow.  This removes material slowly and allows more control.  A huge added benefit is the life of the disks is vastly extended because of less heat generated.  Previously I had used angle grinders for this type of work.  They remove material but they spin at about 10,000 rpm.  Way less control and you go through disks like tissues.

In this video the rough oar blank is run through the radius router bit to get it closer to round.

Mississippi River Skiff update: OarLocks

The pinion of the oarlocks are set 12.5 inches past the edge of the rowing stations.
This is the distance we find best for the stroke geometry in this hull.  If they are set farther abaft you get less reach forward with the oar.  Farther forward and it is too tight.
There is a lot of variation of opinion on the best distance, this is our opinion and our boat.

This weekend we will be sanding the interior to prep for varnish and working on the oars.

Here is a picture of the oar blanks (and a Greenland paddle).  The Ash and cherry look good together.

Oars for the Mississippi River Skiff

Having never made an oar before we referred to Shaw and Tenney's beautiful oars for inspiration. On their excellent web site they indicate how to calculate the proper length of an oar for given row boat's beam.

Howard Chapelle's lines taken from an 1870's vintage river skiff indicate a maximum beam of 58.5 inches.  Taking this number and Shaw and Tenney's formula we arrived at 8.9 feet as  the proper length for the oars.

After sorting through our stacked lumber we finally found the ash boards.  (Rough cut ash and poplar look a lot alike.)  One of our two boards was not straight enough for oars so we were only able to cut three blanks.  This gives me a reason to call John again and get back to the lumber yard.

The blanks are cut to 1 & 3/8 ths inches square.  The next step is to order a larger round-over bit for the router. We are looking forward to making these oars.

The ash is sailing through the table saw.

Once you have a clean cut on it, it is a very familiar looking wood,

(every wooden baseball bat you have ever seen).