Sailing Canoe Chapter 6: Morton's Oar

Step 12 Another Big Emotional Payoff

My dad once showed me a Swedish family carpentry trick:
Wipe a piece of wood with water (or saliva-wet finger) to see what color it would be when you varnish it. A few raindrops and drops of sweat had showed me that this wood would look great.

I'd used up all my paintbrushes with epoxy, so I cut a swatch of rag and used that to wipe the oar all over with linseed oil. It looks good. And if the boat were ready I could take it sailing right now.
That's yet another great thing about linseed oil.

I left the handle unfinished. That's traditional for gringo oars. Supposed to be easier on the hands. This oar gets thrown in the water as part of the sailing routine. I don't know how wet bare wood is on hands versus varnished. I guess I'll find out and either leave it or varnish it.

TO BE CONTINUED...
Chapter 7: Sew a Skin over the Hull Skeleton and Seal it.

Comments

[Wade Tarzia]

Yeah, I always wondered about that, the finishing of the grip. My old oars had painted handles stemming from my Days of Ignorance. I rowed when I couldn't sail, and didn't feel anything really bad. Then I read books that said, 'Leave handle unfinished, to be oiled with the oil of your hand,' and then I felt bad. I never got blisters, though I never rowed for more than hour or two at time. Perhaps you naturally hand-oiled grips work well if you use them an awful lot for heavy labor; for every body else, varnish/lindseed? Will you always be using the steering oar, or mostly for downwind (on my shunting proa I needed oar only for beyond a broad reach -- how did your Yucatan skin-proa work?)

[stib]

Painted oar handles might get slippery when they get wet, especially with gloss paint. Maybe that's the reason.