Once the glue cures, plane the oar shaft down to the paddles. Keep planeing if you want, my blades are 3/8 thick - 3/4 just seemed too much.

Now this really is time to think of how long you want your oars to be: You are sitting in the middle, 2ft from the center to the gunnel. How far does the oar need to extend over the edge? Really, the oars don't need to be much over 6ft long. In any case, you'll want to give yourself a few inches of wrap on either side of the expected pivot point for the oars.

Most oarlocks are too big for a 1-5/16 closet rod, so wrap the oar to your desired thickness. Wrapping the oar is as easy as pie - just keep tightening as you go along.