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Mollyhawks - starting the oars We now have (2) racing rowboats, each capable of carrying (2) rowers. The next thing we need is (8) oars.
John Welsford, designer of the Mollyhawks, sent me the plans for the oars, but they were in metric. I like metric, but it's easy enough for me to convert 'em. Here in Toledo, we are timber-rich, and at first, thought of carving the oars out of 3"x3" baulks. Only problem is, I'm not much of a carver.
I decided I could make more oars with less wood if we laminated the pieces together. The first step was to rip (4) baulks into (8) 1x3 planks and (4) 1/2" planks. I ripped them a tad thick and planed 'em to perfect.
We was making sawdust today, lemme tells ya. MIA was enjoying herself as well.
Pile 'o wood, soon to become oars
Clamp the template in place and start tracing.
I'd considered using the bandsaw to cut the oars, but Bud was using it to make little wooden boat hulls that will be used for a Kid's Boat Build at the Toledo Wooden Boat Show this year. I went with a sabersaw instead.
Oh, man, what a great shot. It usually takes me a day to get the sawdust out of what little hair I have.
We have just enough screw clamps for (4) oars. The next set of oars will be glued next week. So there you have it. We could have carved the oars from solid baulks of timber, but instead of using (8) baulks, laminating allowed us to cut the necessary planks from only (4) baulks. I know I should have been using ash or spruce for these, but we live in fir country, so fir is what we use. We can always make more oars. |
