Rowing Boat Oars

An oar is just an oar, isn't it? It would be easy to think that all oars come in fairly similar designs, made from a single uniform material and in a standard shape. The truth, however, is far removed from this notion. There are three essential parts to any oar - the blade, the shaft and the handle grip. .In many cases the handle is nothing more sophisticated than tape or a rubber sleeve on the end of the shaft and a simple wooden oar might just have a piece of flat plywood forming the blade. A far more time consuming and demanding construction technique is used for the carved wooden spoon blade. The whole oar is carved from a number of lengths of timber that are glued to each other. The shaft is turned to a round shape, a handle shaped on one end and the distinctive spoon blade on the other. The blade is commonly tipped with a piece of copper to prevent splitting or other oar-tip damage. Whereas carved wooden spoon blade oars may be found on more traditional boats, modern racing sculls may well have high tech oars made from composite materials. These may include metal alloys, foam, carbon fibre, graphite, glassfibre and other elements. Nowadays one can also buy cheap and affordable alloy shaft oars with plastic blades. These can often be extended or shortened by tightening or locking a collar or sleeve on a retractable two part shaft. Such oars may be typically found with inflatable dinghies, allowing storage space to be kept to a minimum.