Ed,
Please read what everyone has to say about this tool, it's good at what it does but the types of leathers you wish to skive, pare, etc. are far too heavy for the Scharf-fix. It is good for garment leather nothing else; it's not a splitter. I personally wouldn't use it for anything but paring down 3/8" around an edge for making folds in very soft garment leather. You do have to change blades often or use expensive coated blades even with this light weight leather. As nicely engineered as ths tool is, when I move into a larger work space I will be getting a power skiver as others have described elsewhere in this posting. Although I will most likely never use it on heavy leathers it would non the less save me LOTS of time.
If you do purchase this tool let me know and I will give you a few tips on how to use it effectively.