Our shop is located on Water Street, a stone’s throw from the famed Penobscot River and a block over from the one stoplight you’ll find in our hometown of Orono. Amidst the cloud of perpetual sawdust that looms over the shop and through the hum of saws and sanders sits the same lathe that’s turned the vast majority of our oars since the day we opened in 1858. That’s a lot of oars. Our most popular are the 7' clear spruce oars. Clear spruce is hard to come by, in fact, only one board out of every 2,000 is truly clear spruce. Free of knots and other blemishes, it’s significantly stronger and much lighter than any other North American softwood—a 7' oar tips in at less than 2-1/2 pounds. While there have been advances in technology that would make our old lathe look downright arcane by today’s standards, our business has never put efficiency before quality, and never will.