Hi Howard, and the rest of the gang too! Let me refer you to a font of wisdom regarding oars.
It is Pete Culler's book: " BOATS, OARS, and ROWING, by R. D. Culler" The book was published by International Marine Publishing Company, Camden, ME. ISBN 0-87742-094-7 This is a book with chapters titled: The pleasures of rowing; oars and oar making; oarlocks and other rowing gear; notes on rowing; and more. The use of oars presents you with two distinct problems: 1. Wear on the loom of the oar at the oarlock where it constantly rubs, and, 2. You want maximum propulsion with minimum physical effort. Both of these problems are solved with the use of leathers on oars. The leather protects against loom wear, and the leather coated with tallow reduces friction while rowing. Culler states, "Oar leathers should be 12 to 14 inches long, and sewn on; tacking makes a fracture point, and leathers wear out so you soon ruin a good pair of oars with tacks. Sewing seems to be a great mystery to many, yet it is not. I simply use sail twine, waxed, which every boatman should learn to use, and the stich is simply the rough and ready sail-repair stitch called the herringbone, or baseball stitch. Some soak new leathers before sewing them on having carefully fitted them first; they shrink tight in drying. Some leather can be difficult to work, for the stitches tend to pull through in sewing. Take care! If the leathers are put on dry, there is less risk of this, but later on the leathers may become loose and slide down. The first thought when that happens is tack them - don't! Simply smear the shaft with contact cement and slide the leather back in position and let it dry. ........ Substitutes have been tried for oar leathers. I've tried some myself. None work like leather, provided it is kept well lubricated. Fiberglass has been tried, and it's a real bum and soon cracks, for obvious reasons. Very heavy canvas works for a time, so does serving with line, but the time for both is short. The store bought rubber sleeves are way too short and add much friction between oar and oarlock. I've looked for the answer for many years and found it - good leathers of sufficient length, sewn on, and kept well greased." (Culler's oar leather length of 12 to 14 inches is based on the use of oars by different rowers using different rowing techniques, as well as use of the oars at two different rowing stations in the same boat - chb) On lubrication: "I always stress lubrication, which is essential for easy rowing and presevation of oars and leathers. Either tallow or Vaseline will do quite well: forget neetsfoot oil and all sorts of leather oils. This is more or less a crankshaft you are lubricating. Use enough - be a bit sloppy with it - this is a bearing surface, not a bit of harness, or a pair of boots you are polishing. And don't forget to put some on the oarlock sockets." To keep your oar from sliding out of the oarlock you need a "button" which is a half inch wide strip of leather wound around the inboard end of the leather. I have made mine by epoxy gluing the leather strip to the oar leather, and to itself aas I wound it around and around. A turkshead knot will serve the same purpose Culler shows another solution: seize a line tightly at the inboard end of the blade of the oar. Now determine the maximum length you want the oar extended from the oarlock. At the base of the oarlock you usually find a groove - below the oarlock surface holding the oar, and above the machined flat area of the shaft of the oarlock. Tie off the line to this groove. Now the oar can slide into the water, but is limited and captured by your line. I haven't tried this approach, but is sounds simple and practical and just requires a bit of line for a trial. Tallow: Tallow is nothing but melted suet. Get some suet at your supermarket meat counter, put it in a pot over very low heat; and then s l o w l y melt the suet. Think frying bacon and saving the bacon grease. The trick here is low heat (you don't want to burn your suet: all you want to do is melt it very gently). The second thing to remember is it has to be dry - absolutely no moisture - no condensed moisture on the surface from taking it out of the refrigerator before you put it in the pot. Have it at room temperature and dry it with paper towels before you start melting. Reason? The moisture will collect at the bottom of the pot as the suet starts melting. You then have a pot full of liquid fat, with a few drops of water in the bottom of the pot. This water eventually becomes steam, and when the pressure gets high enough to overcome the weight of the molten fat laying on top of it, you get a young explosion as the steam finally escapes from the pot. It also splatter hot fat everywhere. Be very careful about this - I had it happen to me when I made my first batch of tallow which I was then using on my turnbuckles, as well as on my oar leathers. When the tallow is all liquid, pour it through a fine strainer to get rid on any meat bits that might have been in there. I put mine into a wide-mouthed glass jar. It sits in the shop and is in constant use: once you have it available (like WD-40) you wonder how you lived so long without it! If you feed your birds in winter, you can make your own suet cakes this way. Just add peanut hearts, cracked corn, and sunflower seeds and put in a square form till it hardens. Connie M15 #400 LEPPO ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! 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