Give your boat a taste of traditional nautical life by handcrafting a classic set of wooden oars. This two-day workshop provides a thorough, hands-on introduction to the craft of oar making. You’ll use traditional hand tools including a spokeshave, drawknife and block plane to shape a custom set of oars from basswood and learn about finishing the oars using traditional leatherwork for handles. Create a set of oars from a variety of patterns and styles, or you can design your own to specifically fit your boat. There's nothing like an early morning or sunset row - get equipped and out on the water. Under the instructor's supervision, participants may experiment with a variety of handcrafted wooden oars and wooden boats on campus to determine their preferred sizes, limited to 8ft in length.

You will need the following tools for this class: