Practical Boat Owner – May 2018

David Parker upcycles an old pair of rigger’s boots

to create smart leather sleeves for his dinghy oars

An old pair of boots were the perfect source of leather for an oar sleeve

U

nlike wood, leather is one of

those materials not always

readily available to most of

us. Sure, you can order it

online and from specialists but that’s

an expensive way to experiment if you

just fancy trying your hand at some

basic leatherwork.

It’s for this reason that I’m always loathe

to throw it away; old belts have been

recycled using my sewing machine to

make trim for garments, and I’ve even cut

up shoes to make things like small

pouches or tool guards.

So when the soles of my old rigger

boats were finally worn out I could see

quite a bit of leather there that could be

used again – the job which immediately

sprang to mind being to leather the oars

for my tender, which were getting rather

scuffed from the galvanised rowlocks. You

can buy proper kits to do this job but I was

happy to use the leather from the boots.

When I’d salvaged the leather the first

job was to find out where the oars sit in

the rowlocks when mounted for a

comfortable rowing position. These oars

are 6ft (1.83m) long for use in my tender.

For the rowlocks to sit mid way along the

leather I found the best position was to

begin the leathering 19in (48.5cm) down

from the top of the oars.

For longer oars some leathering kits

provide 10in (25.5cm) or 12in (30.5cm)

leather rolls. The maximum length I’d get

out of the boot would be 7½in (19cm) but,

topped and tailed with braid collars I

found this to be perfectly adequate with

these shorter oars.

I came across various stitching methods

recommended for this job, but I found the

neatest and simplest to be a cross stitch

going over and under alternate holes.

However, depending on what materials

you have to hand, I would recommend

experimenting. I unpicked my first few starts

before I found something I liked. Fortunately

leather is tough and very forgiving.

(^1)
The first job was to cut off the sole
of the boot. I did this with a sharp
Stanley knife by slicing through the joint
at the top of the sole moulding.
(^2)
Next a standard seam ripper was
used to take out all the stitches
where the leather had been joined or
doubled up as reinforcement for the boot.
(^3)
This shows the leather panels
retrieved from just one boot when
the stitches were removed – quite a
selection of pieces.
82 Practical Boat Owner t http://www.pbo.co.uk
PRACTICAL
Leathering oars Step
by
step