April 11-15, 2003
Oars are constructed using 8' clear, straight grain pine/spruce. The finished length is 7' 6". Strips of clear 32" X 2" X 3/4" cedar are edge glued using biscuits to the spruce. After joining and gluing, oars are brought inside to setup. Still cold in the garage.
Basic shape is gotten out using a draw knife, block plane, and a beveled chair plane. The lower ends of the looms are rounded while the upper ends are left square. The handles are rounded and left unvarnished.
Later the ridge in the pine was removed. Looks better and probably works better. View of stem with counter sunk holes for anchor screws.
Cleaning up the ends of the rub rails. Sizing up and roughing out the dagger board.
Gluing up the deck coaming. White oak rub rail is installed with glue and screws. Dagger board is constructed by laminating 4 sheets of occume. The 2 center sheets are cut out to allow lead ballast to be sandwiched.
This laminating took a considerable amount of epoxy. Later the whole assembly is clamped with long straight edge boards to a flat surface and allowed to cure.
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