Oar maintenance, sculling oars, and such

[wikakaru]

I allowed the varnish on my oars to deteriorate, and now the wood is stained gray and black. Does anyone know of a good way to remove the stains? I was wondering about a chemical teak cleaner, but I don't know if it will damage the wood since it is obviously not teak. I'm not sure what it is...Spruce? Ash? Pine? The oars are made by Walker Bay and came with my dinghy.

If anyone has experience with this I'd appreciate your insight.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Smooth sailing,

Jim

[Carl Thunberg]

Trust me. You are not alone in neglecting the varnish on your oars. I have a pair of oars on an aluminum "work boat" that I use for lots of purposes. When they got in that state, I sanded them down and painted them (except the handles). I also have a very nice pair of Shaw & Tenney oars that I varnish religiously. It all depends on your own sense of aesthetics and how much maintenance you want to do. I would start out with a TSP and bleach solution first. Rinse thoroughly when you are done. Don't use TSP anywhere near water because of the phosphate that has been linked with algae blooms.

[wikakaru]

That's a good idea: try a cleaner first, and if it screws up the wood, just paint it and cover it up. I think I will try that unless someone else has first-hand experience chemically cleaning wooden oars.

I have a land trip scheduled in a few weeks, so maybe I will take the oars off the boat then, allow the wood to dry out while I'm away, and tackle the job when I get back. There's too much good sailing between now and then to miss because of something trivial like varnishing a pair of oars!

Smooth sailing,

Jim

[Steve Darwin]

For my ash oars, I lightly sand, clean with teak cleaner, or dish soap with wood bleach (oxalic acid), let dry, then apply Semco teak sealer, as much as the wood will absorb, usually takes about three coats, excess sealer wiped away. Lasts pretty much the whole season with oars left in the skiff exposed to rain and to sun. The only wood I varnish is the sailboat's tiller, and that's a chore! To each their own.

[John Stone]

I built my own square loomed ash dinghy oars. Same for when 14'10" sculling oar. Never varnished. Left bare. I wash them with a wash cloth and sometimes soapy water. They look great and are as strong as the day I made them.

Yes you can clean them with a teak cleaner when washing them with soap and water is not enough. I prefer two part Te-Ka. It says for teak or oily woods but I have found that not to be the case. Rebecca Whittman says the same and she is an expert. You will be astounded at how Te-Ka cleans the wood.

I don't oil them but some folks do.

[wikakaru]

Thanks Steve and John! I feel better knowing that teak cleaner should not destroy the wood. I will start the project later this month after my road trip.

I don't think my oars are ash like yours are, John. The grain is really soft and the water just soaks in and keeps the wood wet everywhere the varnish has flaked off. They are the original Walker Bay oars, and I doubt Walker Bay chose the best materials. Actually, only the shafts are wooden; the blades are plastic. I think if I left them untreated like yours, they would disintegrate within a year. I'm already worried about what's going to happen to them in the next few weeks before I get them taken care of.

I need to post a photo so someone can tell me what kind of wood it is. I'm not sure I can get down to the boat today, but maybe tomorrow.

Smooth sailing,

Jim

[John Stone]

I don’t know the effects of using a two part oxalic acid based cleaner like te ka on wood that soft. Not saying it will damage it but I don’t know. So proceed with caution. There are gentler one part cleaners out there but normally in my limited experience you don’t need them if you clean the wood regularly…at least that’s been the case for me with teak and ash.

One thing I will say about teak is it. Ones with the neutralizer so you can shut the bleaching down right away.

Good luck.

[wikakaru]

Here's what the oars look like. If anyone can hazard a guess on the type of wood from the photo I'd be interested to know what it is.

Smooth sailing,

Jim

20210807_161302.jpg

[Dick Villamil]

IMHO the oars look like southern pine - be careful when using any acid cleaner because it removes the soft part of the grain leaving the hard ridges, I would try some cleaner on the dark spots then use a thinned varnish so it soaks into the wood after everything is dry. Follow that up with a couple of coats of less diluted varnish.

[wikakaru]

I finished the oars. I went with paint instead of varnish because I just wasn't sure what structural effect bleaching the soft wood would have, and sanding did little to remove the stains, so they would have been pretty ugly varnished. Here are the oars during the stripping/sanding process:

IMG_1919.JPG

And here they are back in the dinghy after painting:

DSC_2692.JPG

I decided to cheap out and use Rustoleum "Marine" Topside Paint instead of a proper 1-part marine paint. I'm not sure I like the process or results. This is the first paint I've ever seen that tells you to seal the wood first with varnish. So I varnished the oars first. It wasn't pretty. I didn't have access to any Rustoleum Wood & Fiberglass Primer (which is supposed to be the second step of the painting process), so I went straight to the finish coat. I regret that mistake. I think this project is going to be one of those "never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do over" sort of deals. But I'm back to sailing again, and the oars should be fine until after the season is over, when I don't need the dinghy and can spend enough time to do it right.

Smooth sailing,

Jim

[John Stone]

I finished the oars. I went with paint instead of varnish because I just wasn't sure what structural effect bleaching the soft wood would have, and sanding did little to remove the stains, so they would have been pretty ugly varnished. Here are the oars during the stripping/sanding process:

IMG_1919.JPG

And here they are back in the dinghy after painting:

DSC_2692.JPG

I decided to cheap out and use Rustoleum "Marine" Topside Paint instead of a proper 1-part marine paint. I'm not sure I like the process or results. This is the first paint I've ever seen that tells you to seal the wood first with varnish. So I varnished the oars first. It wasn't pretty. I didn't have access to any Rustoleum Wood & Fiberglass Primer (which is supposed to be the second step of the painting process), so I went straight to the finish coat. I regret that mistake. I think this project is going to be one of those "never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do over" sort of deals. But I'm back to sailing again, and the oars should be fine until after the season is over, when I don't need the dinghy and can spend enough time to do it right.

Smooth sailing,

Jim

Sometimes good enough is the right answer.

I just finished painting some marine ply for a project I am working on in our jeep. Interlux wood sealer, then a primer, then the one part LPU. All the wood sealer is is varnish thinned about 50 percent. You only need to do that though with ply and soft woods.

Normally you don’t paint or varnish the handles of oars. Not exactly sure why that is so but that’s tradition. Something to do with blisters. IDK for sure. Maybe someone here knows.

You should think about making a set of ash oars over the winter. Not a hard project. Basic tools. Lots of fun. And they are a pleasure to use. Just enough flexibility in the looms. Tough as nails. O. Srnish or paint…ever.

Anyway, I’m glad you’re out there sailing and taking pictures for us.

[wikakaru]

Normally you don’t paint or varnish the handles of oars. Not exactly sure why that is so but that’s tradition. Something to do with blisters. IDK for sure. Maybe someone here knows.

You should think about making a set of ash oars over the winter. Not a hard project. Basic tools. Lots of fun. And they are a pleasure to use. Just enough flexibility in the looms. Tough as nails. O. Srnish or paint…ever.

Anyway, I’m glad you’re out there sailing and taking pictures for us.

I think the reason for not painting or varnishing oar handles is that if coated they will become very slippery when wet. I decided that it was better to have the protection of the coating rather than the non-slip surface because my oars are cheap to begin with and I don't think they will last very long if not protected. If my hands get wet when when I'm rowing I usually just dry them on my pants for a better grip.

I don't know that I'd bother making a set of 6-1/2 foot oars when these go bad, because replacements are cheap (around $100 per pair) and easy to get. The varnish/paint solution was a reasonable stop-gap, because it only cost $33 total. However, I would like to make a set of 14-1/2 foot oars for Arietta's primary propulsion. One custom oar manufacturer quoted me almost $700 per oar, which I can't justify spending. I read your blog post on the sculling oar you made for Far Reach (http://farreachvoyages.com/projects/scu ... yoars.html) but it sounds like you had a lot of tools I don't. I can't imagine doing such a project with the jig saw, circular saw, and other rudimentary hand tools that I have. No way I could cut a proper scarf to make a piece long enough. I don't have anywhere to put any self-standing tools like band saw, table saw, bench sander, etc, so I've never invested in them. For now I'm making due with a 9-foot oar that I purchased locally ($83 at Hamilton Marine). It works so-so; I think it is too short to do a proper job of sculling from Arietta's transom, but it's the largest, cheapest, non-custom oar I could find locally, so it will have to do for now.

Smooth sailing,

Jim

[John Stone]

Normally you don’t paint or varnish the handles of oars. Not exactly sure why that is so but that’s tradition. Something to do with blisters. IDK for sure. Maybe someone here knows.

You should think about making a set of ash oars over the winter. Not a hard project. Basic tools. Lots of fun. And they are a pleasure to use. Just enough flexibility in the looms. Tough as nails. O. Srnish or paint…ever.

Anyway, I’m glad you’re out there sailing and taking pictures for us.

I think the reason for not painting or varnishing oar handles is that if coated they will become very slippery when wet. I decided that it was better to have the protection of the coating rather than the non-slip surface because my oars are cheap to begin with and I don't think they will last very long if not protected. If my hands get wet when when I'm rowing I usually just dry them on my pants for a better grip.

I don't know that I'd bother making a set of 6-1/2 foot oars when these go bad, because replacements are cheap (around $100 per pair) and easy to get. The varnish/paint solution was a reasonable stop-gap, because it only cost $33 total. However, I would like to make a set of 14-1/2 foot oars for Arietta's primary propulsion. One custom oar manufacturer quoted me almost $700 per oar, which I can't justify spending. I read your blog post on the sculling oar you made for Far Reach (http://farreachvoyages.com/projects/scu ... yoars.html) but it sounds like you had a lot of tools I don't. I can't imagine doing such a project with the jig saw, circular saw, and other rudimentary hand tools that I have. No way I could cut a proper scarf to make a piece long enough. I don't have anywhere to put any self-standing tools like band saw, table saw, bench sander, etc, so I've never invested in them. For now I'm making due with a 9-foot oar that I purchased locally ($83 at Hamilton Marine). It works so-so; I think it is too short to do a proper job of sculling from Arietta's transom, but it's the largest, cheapest, non-custom oar I could find locally, so it will have to do for now.

Smooth sailing,

Jim

I don't have that many tools. I had to cut a scarf because I wanted the sculling oar made from ash and 10' is as long as I could get. I was running out of time so I went with what I could fined locally. But I'd have no issue making one from Douglas Fir. You can get DF in 16' lengths. Anyway, you don't need many tools for this. Circle saw, jig saw, probably a block plane and a spoke shave. A hand power planer would be nice. That's about it. You could build it in a few days. Stretch it out over the winter and take a month. It would be fun. I can't imagine $700 for an oar. But then again--$50 an hour. And that's in the low end in the marine industry.

Tim gonna do a great job on your boat. He is a treasure.

[wikakaru]

I don't have that many tools. I had to cut a scarf because I wanted the sculling oar made from ash and 10' is as long as I could get. I was running out of time so I went with what I could fined locally. But I'd have no issue making one from Douglas Fir. You can get DF in 16' lengths. Anyway, you don't need many tools for this. Circle saw, jig saw, probably a block plane and a spoke shave. A hand power planer would be nice. That's about it. You could build it in a few days. Stretch it out over the winter and take a month. It would be fun. I can't imagine $700 for an oar. But then again--$50 an hour. And that's in the low end in the marine industry.

Tim gonna do a great job on your boat. He is a treasure.

The scarf joints are the most daunting part of the job, but acquiring the lumber could be a stumbling block, too. I just did an online search for Douglas Fir at one of the big-box home improvement stores. Interestingly, in Florida, where I would do the winter project, they don't sell anything longer than 8 feet. Here in Maine, they sell 16-foot Douglas Fir. I'd have to buy it here and car-top it to Florida for the winter. On your blog you don't say what lumber you used for the long sculling oar, but you used 8/4 for the dinghy oars. All I see available at the big box store is 2-by dimensional lumber, so it would only be 1-1/2 inches thick. Do you think the job could be done with any of these?

Douglas Fir.jpg

The tools are another matter. I'd have to buy a block plane and spoke shave. Block planes start at $15, and spoke shaves start at $30, but the cheapest hand-held power planers are $80 and they go up dramatically from there.

I appreciate your thoughts and your experience!

Jim

[John Stone]

I don't have that many tools. I had to cut a scarf because I wanted the sculling oar made from ash and 10' is as long as I could get. I was running out of time so I went with what I could fined locally. But I'd have no issue making one from Douglas Fir. You can get DF in 16' lengths. Anyway, you don't need many tools for this. Circle saw, jig saw, probably a block plane and a spoke shave. A hand power planer would be nice. That's about it. You could build it in a few days. Stretch it out over the winter and take a month. It would be fun. I can't imagine $700 for an oar. But then again--$50 an hour. And that's in the low end in the marine industry.

Tim gonna do a great job on your boat. He is a treasure.

The scarf joints are the most daunting part of the job, but acquiring the lumber could be a stumbling block, too. I just did an online search for Douglas Fir at one of the big-box home improvement stores. Interestingly, in Florida, where I would do the winter project, they don't sell anything longer than 8 feet. Here in Maine, they sell 16-foot Douglas Fir. I'd have to buy it here and car-top it to Florida for the winter. On your blog you don't say what lumber you used for the long sculling oar, but you used 8/4 for the dinghy oars. All I see available at the big box store is 2-by dimensional lumber, so it would only be 1-1/2 inches thick. Do you think the job could be done with any of these?

Douglas Fir.jpg

The tools are another matter. I'd have to buy a block plane and spoke shave. Block planes start at $15, and spoke shaves start at $30, but the cheapest hand-held power planers are $80 and they go up dramatically from there.

I appreciate your thoughts and your experience!

Jim

If you want to build a sculling oar (a noble pursuit in my opinion) you can't be swayed. You just have to decide that's what you're going to do. That is not a trite statement. You are going to run into obstacles and the uncommitted will give up.

I would not look for lumber at a big box store. It's sucks. It's horrible. It's not stable. Don't do it.

I'd recommend a lumber supplier--like Atlantic Veneer or any number of other suppliers. There are almost certainly some in driving distance. If you are in Maine there is loads of wood available. All those wood boats....

14' seems kind of big so figure out for sure how long the oar needs to be. Are you sculling or rowing? Makes a difference. Sculling is simple. One oar. The weight does not matter since you don't lift it between strokes. But you need to know ahead of time how the our is going to be mounted to the boat. Where and how? You are going to need an oar lock. One suitable for a 14' oar is going to be big. I think mine is almost 3" in diameter. I would think for a 22-25' boat you are looking at an oar lick if maybe 11-12' but I'm guessing.

Let's just say it needs to be 14' long. You are going to laminate three 2x6's together. You only need a 16' for the center one because the long blade is not more than 1.5" thick. The other two shorter boards (maybe only 10 long or shorter perhaps are laminated to each side. ThTs the loom. Once it's glued up you'll make your layout marks. Then, use your planer to take that thickness down from 4.5 inches to about 2.7" or something (I'm just doing this in my head so don't hold me to the math here).

Then make new layout lines and use your jig saw to cut the wood down further to something that resembles an oar. The loom should be square. You'll make a 7-10-7 gauge (a small piece of wood, two pencils, two dowels, a drill). That gauge will allow you to quickly and accurately scribe lines on the loom so you can use the power plan to turn the square loom into an 8 sided then 16 sided then round loom.

Now is just a matter of shaping the loom and blade. You'll need the block plane and spike shave for that.

The handle you cut with a hand saw, chisels, files. It's fun work. There is no fiberglass to grind or sand. You don't need epoxy. You're making sawdust. Your testosterone level will skyrocket. Your beard will grow thick and lush.... So I'm stretching a little, perhaps.

Anyway, It'll take you a couple days to build it. Or maybe a couple weeks a little at a time. Yes, it's more complicated than that...but not by much. When your done you'll be so proud. You'll want to beat your chest and shoot your gun in the air. Women will swoon, children will be awed, and men will be envious.

You'll end up with some tools you can use for other projects which is good because you'll start thinking gosh that was not so hard and I learned a lot. I bet I can make a new laminated tiller. That would be so much easier than the oar.

The most important part of the whole project though is commitment. You cannot be deterred. You have to look at like a journey. Like Marlow in Heart of Darkness when he talks about the value of building the boat. Anyway, if you want to do this let me know and I'll walk you through it and answer questions as you go.