Oars

Hardened wood oars serve myriad purposes on Younger Sister, and most locals will recount the tale of a proud warrior challenged to a duel on an island, only to have his oars stolen, leaving him more or less stranded. Many boaters on Little Sister carry their oars with them, but this ubiquitous tool has had to pull extra duties to make carrying it around worthwhile. First and foremost, the oars are constructed in such a way as to make them ideal for placing and removing food in the shaped clay ovens southerners favor. The folks of Younger Sister see something poetic about the same tool used to bring them out into fishing waters being used to help make bread. Additionally, married couples are typically presented with one oar each, the idea being that they will go further together in life than separately. Oars also make convenient weapons, and societies have dedicated entire martial arts systems to the use of this innocuous looking tool. Some people have even perfected the art of embedding razor sharp obsidian into their oars, which requires constant upkeep but creates and amazingly powerful weapon.
The preferred wood, shape, and length vary from town to town and can tell a knowledgeable sort quite a bit about whence an oar wielder hails. For all the importance they carry in society, the people of Younger Sister understand how fragile tools can be, and little decoration or extra attention is put into most oars (unless they're to be dedicated weapons, as the obsidian ones above). Decorated oars are used for religious festivals and rites, and symbolic oars are lain in graves with carvings upon them to help in the afterlife, but the day to day variety are considered largely disposable. Each town has at least one dedicated oar maker however, as few people on Younger Sister feel comfortable traveling without one, no matter how disposable they are.