Remember the "Need help with rotten oar" post? Well even if you don't I thought I'd share what a little elbow grease (got to sell that stuff!) can do...

I used Ash, which is what Sawyer used on the originals according to customer service.

I laminated the two outside pieces in place using 2 hr epoxy. These formed a jig to work on a flat surface as they extended past the crown of the center of the oar blade and equal with the oar shaft diameter. The inside braces were cut and fitted, then glued/laminated with Gorilla Glue.

After the glue dried I trimmed this all down using a hand plane to take off all the excess material, sanding it as the final pre-finish step. I was literally standing in a sea of wood shavings when I was done, and boy did my arms ache.

To test the strength of the oar I sat on the end of the blade without incident. I figure that if it can take 230 lbs it will be more than adequate for the rigors of pulling the sled through the water and first hand experience backs that up.

I could have gone with the $450 Cataract solution but I like my Sawyers, even if they do require an extreme makeover from time to time, haha.

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The root cause of my effort:



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Alll marked up to remove material from the oar



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Jigged up for table saw work



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The finished product



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The finished product - a better look!



So there you have it - my solution!

OK, I'm impressed.
Really.

Nice woodworking!

That's nice work.

That turned out great! Nice work, should last for a long time.
chumsalmon

Nice job.

I would imagine that 99% of us would have tossed that old oar in the fire pile.

Did the rot come from having a rubber boot on it's paddle? I had some Saywers rot inside the boot and pretty well ruined them. I just don't think that they dry out with it on the end.

fp

nice table saw fence i used to use one like it at work

Hey thanks a lot guys!

Yea I figured that my time was worth too much until I was faced with having to drive to Sportco and shell out $$$. I re-thought the whole situation and figured $25 worth of Ash, and some of the that elbow grease (6 hours) was worth the effort.

fp - Yep I figure that the boots were the eventual cause of the rot. I still put em back on because they'd be beat to deatch from the rocks if they weren't there.

Can anyone think of or know a better way to protect the ends of the oars??? (the boots obviously have some flaws)

First of all.... Nice work... not only strong but they look pretty sharp too.

If it was me I would fiberglass them.

three or four layers of mat right at the ends where they see the abuse and just one layer or just resin the rest of the way up for water protection.

As cool as they look it would be a shame to cover them up with the boots.

To protect the ends, I'd saturate the wood with epoxy, put a saturated coat of light mesh over the lower third of the blade, and an epoxy saturated layer of heavy triaxial mesh right at the tip. That will give you a sacrificial layer right at the tip.

Nice woodwork on those oars. Very nice. I had a pair of wooden oars once, not Sawyers but they were OK. I fiberglassed the tips and they lasted forever. Is a matter of fact they are still in the garage. After I tried a friend of mines composite oars I liked them so much I bought a pair of them. The lighter weight also allowed my youngsters to learn to row the boat sooner. Now I get to fish some too. Maybe if I'd had good wooden oars the outcome would have been the same. Anyway, I always admire good woodwork.