These are beautiful, and much lighter than I thought they would be. Finish is nice, maybe not the most premium you may get from an expensive oar dealer or something, but for my use they are perfect. Ordering online and shipping was an extremely smooth process. I am using them as a backup method of propulsion in case of engine trouble on my 14' wooden Tango skiff. They will do the trick for sure. Very nice product! Thanks Jamestown.

Wow I ordered a pair of the 8' oars and got them in about 4 days even though they were out of stock when I ordered. They are great. The finish is not furnature quality but is better than I expected. I may add a coat of varnish later. Great value and service for a hard to find item. I am looking forward to using them on my 14' deep vee rowboat.

i use the oars for river trips and love them. light weight, good control,and very comfortable. mine have a great finish and great wood grain. i did put two more coats of marine varnish on them for piece of mind. all oars should come with padded grips and these did not.like em...

Caviness Basswood Oars are a great value for the price. They are perfect fit for skiffing out to mooring and poking around the harbor. Admittedly the finish is disappointing and coarse. I found it more cost effective to improve this easily myself with a quick 180 grit sand and 2 overcoats of polyurethane. Any finish or paint will improve these oars to help prolong the life and integrity of wood. These oars are lightweight and stiff with a narrower shaft than older traditional oars. Solid hardwood oars typically cost twice to 3x as much. This oar meets expectations for value price. Oars and paddles are sold individually, not in pairs.

It is good enough to use as pattern for making your own ""better"" oar

I have an 8-foot Caviness oar and ordered a second to have a pair. Unfortunately, the diameters and lengths don't match. This is very disappointing. The finish is minimal, but that is not a problem as I was planning to sand and finish both to match.

Here is part of an e-mail I sent Jamestown of which I never received a response. ""I recently completed building a small boat and needed a pair of oars to row it with. Being that the boat turned out better then expected I choose to get a good set of oars from Jamestown verse my local Wal-Mart. I checked out your Caviness oars. I read the reviews about the poor quality of the Basswood oars and decided that the BW-SU series was of a higher quality and more fitting to top of all the hard work I had put into my boat. So paying the premium was not a problem. When I received the package I was very much taken back! First upon opening it I found only one oar. I didn't think I order a paddle; I ordered oars for my boat. Well after checking the catalog, I found out that that was my mistake. But I have to question, wouldn't a reasonable person always thinks of oars as a pair, not one oar? Who in their right mind would want to row in a circle? As I said, my mistake, shame on me. (But I do have a suggestion, you might want to reword the ad or include a highlighted note that the item is not a set.) My second reaction to the oar was it looked great. That was until I picked it up. The finish on the shaft was courser then a piece of 80-grit sandpaper. Than the selection of the wood itself wasn't what I would expect for a ""Top of the Line"" product. (You may want to read some of the reviews and decide whether you want to continue to carry a line of products from a company that obviously has no quality control and produces such poor quality products.)"" Follow up: I sent the oar back at a cost of over $17.00.

These are crudely built and poorly finished. One was 1/2 inch longer and was not finished on the end. Grips were also 1/2 inch off. I may return them but the shipping is a problem. They will not make your dinghy look good.

I use them to row a 14' row boat I use for fishing. The oars are light weight so they are easy to handle. They could use additional finish coatings to protect and prolong the life of these oars.

First reviewer is right, the oars need another coat of poly on them. I don't know whay he rated something that would need hours of additional word as being 5 out of 5 stars. The shaft diameter is 1 5/16ths inches, which is smaller than most oar lock collars and oar locks. Now I have to buy new, smaller oar locks. You get what you pay for.