I have started on my oars. After a false start and a lot of looking around I finally settled on laminating some basswood boards into a blank.  I looked at a lot of plans on the web and I am more or less following Jim Michalak’s plans. His plans are for 8 foot and I am making 9′. So they will vary a little bit.

With that glued up I moved over to the boat and started skinning.

On this boat I just staple the skin on the inside of the coaming.

I am trying a new stitch down the bow. I have seen this done before but never knew how it was done and finally just decided to try it. It’s slower but I love the way it looks and I also found that I can pull the skin tight and not get those pesky pull holes either.

The bow is sewn and ready for a little shrinking to pull out some wrinkles. It’s going to be a couple of days before I can get back on it but it will not take long to be ready for paint or whatever finish I decide on.

Any color suggestions? I am stumped.