Coloradoguy

Thanks Jonas, I do know of that company in Omaha. Thanks Tom, I'll be reaching out to Bruce.

TomE, Yes, my roller is centered on the blade edge. Putting pressure on the hold-down bar and blank behind the roller with a 2x4 was recommended by another member on this site to solve my initial problem of skiving/splitting completely through the ends of my belts. I sharpened my blade more and tested this again, I had better success without the 2x4. Thanks for the tip about pulling the strap through at a consistent angle, slightly lower than horizontal. DieselTech, I think I may have been stretching the blank, I was pulling pretty hard to get the blank through. I think my blade could still be sharper, but the blade has a compound angle and it is difficult for me to keep the angle of the narrow edge consistent on my sharpening stone. Anyone know what type of sharpening company would be able to sharpen this blade for me? The local knife sharpeners have not been responding when I send them photos of the blade.

I posted a similar question back on May 18 in this forum and got some good tips, but I'm still having trouble. I purchased the TandyPro Deluxe Leather Splitter a few months ago. My problem is, when I pull belt straps through to skive 7" at the buckle end, I am not getting a flat cut. It is cutting too deep in the middle of the blank, see photos. The light area on the end of my blank in the photo is cut too deep, I cut a cross section of the waste piece and am holding it in my hand in the photo, you can see how bad it is cutting. These are the steps I am taking to do my split/skive: First, I sharpened the blade a LOT from how it came in the box, and kept the edge very flat. I set the roller at the depth I want at both ends and tighten the two lock nuts I start my cut while pressing back on the lever, cutting slowly for about 1/4" to 1/2" until the blade gets to depth I stop and tighten down the roller with the large nob Then I use a short piece of 2x4 to hold down the bar and the blank behind the roller, so the blank follows the curve of the roller from behind and slightly below Then I pull the blank through slowly. And it screws up the cut. What am I doing wrong? Previously, and before I started holding down the bar and belt with a piece of 2x4, I'd split through the blank entirely and ruin belts. I'd appreciate any tips or comments to correct this problem, thx!

Thank you Dwight, I appreciate the detailed explanation

Thanks for the tips Dwight. I don't recall reading anything in the instructions about holding the bail down. It's been over a year since I tried those machines and there are two more things I could have been doing wrong. What am I supposed to do regarding locking the knob on the side, and whether I should put pressure on the lever, or not?

I had major problems with two different skiver/splitter machines. The first one I purchased from Tandy (their High Tech Leather Splitter) as a discontinued closeout. I ruined several leather belts with it while trying to skive the buckle end. I practiced on scrap leather so I thought I had the technique down, but on some belts when I pulled the leather through it skived all the way through the to the face of the belt and ruined the belt. This happened several times. So I sold it on eEbay and purchased a different one on Amazon that looked the same machine as the TandyPro Deluxe Leather Splitter but is being sold for much less. I had the same problem with that unit and returned it. With both units I had to pull very hard to get the leather through. Has anyone else had this happen, or is my problem all user error? I'm thinking about trying either the unit from BuckleGuy or the TandyPro Deluxe Leather Splitter. The BuckleGuy sells what looks like the same unit as what Tandy and Amazon are selling, but in a demo video it appears the leather pulls through his machine very easily. His website says the blade is really sharp.