There's no real difference in my performance with flat or spoon blade oars James but I have spoon blades for my Skerry because they simply look way, way nicer and complement the lines of the boat.

According to Shaw & Tenny, spoons are more efficient but whether you will ever see a difference between how they perform vs. flat blade oars depends more on the boat you're rowing than the shape of the blades.

Personally I just like the look of spoons myself, and wonder whether they might be a bit easier to use for novice rowers vs. flats.

At my present stage in the assembly & fitting out of my Waterlust canoe I'm planning on adding oars so whether to add some hull reinforcement while the deck's not yet been attached is of more immediate interest. Oars'll come later, maybe a less-challenging project for next winter....

���Thanks for the response guys, There's no denying that the look and craftsmanship of spoon blades are 2nd to none. I think that unless you spend days and weeks in your boat the weekend warrior will probably never know the difference...

   I have flats and spoons. I *think* the more important factor is care in production. A good set of flats should be just fine. But as SP says, the spoons certainly look the part.
The flats I started with just didn’t feel right, but what did I know, I was new to rowing. Bought Shaw and Tenny spoons shortly after and Man what a difference! After rowing them for a couple of seasons I tried the flats again and they were horrific. Decided they couldn’t get any worse so I performed surgery on them. Removed 6+ oz. of wood from each and refined the shape quite a bit. Now they’re great. My guess is that a flat oar from Shaw and Tenny would be great too. Some less expensive oars might be good “blanks” if you want to surgerize them yourself.

Top oar hasn't been fully shaped yet.

This worked out really well and these oars were 40% less than S&T spoons.

More pics here

Cheers,

e