Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Oar Wrap the Final Frontier.

Well i have now wrapped a bunch of oars. I have a nice little system that should make a lot of our lives way easier. So here is how it works.

Start by clamping the oar onto the bench. By using staves you can securely hold the oar out away from the work surface as in the picture below.


If you are unfamiliar with this blog or just need a refresher please read this blog post. In the post, Serving You the Perfect Oar Wrap, i describe a serving mallet. This simple tool is still the best way i have found to do this non mechanically so build yourself one.

With the oar all clamped up and the area to be wrapped marked off begin at the handle end of the oar. Start by un-braiding or un-twisting about four or five inches of the line.  Then with electrical tape wrap it down so that the live ind of the line sticks out facing the handle.


Now set up the serving mallet and begin wrapping (serving) the oar working your way to the blade. If your wondering about how to use the Serving Mallet see the above post. Keep going until your six wraps from your end mark. You can figure out this distance by measuring six finished wraps.


For the last six wraps a loop of rope needs to be put under the servings. Make sure that the knot is facing the handle.


With the last six wraps in place remove the malet and cut the line leaving about ten inches of spare. Run the end through the loop that you wrapped in and use  it to pull the loose end through.

When your done it should look like this. Now grab the free end and pull it as tight as you humanly can. Then with a razor trim off the excess where it comes out of the serving.
 You will now need some quick set epoxy like this.

Mix the epoxy and apply it to the place where the tail came out of the serving as well as right ware the tail cuts under the servings at the end of the wrap. This will hold the tail tight. Be careful not to glue the wrap to the oar (you'll have a hell of a time replacing it should you ever need to)

Ok so here they are, get out on the water and have some fun!

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