Best splitter on a budget

[Tove09Tilda]

Hello folks, 

I am planning to upgrade my toolbox a little bit after Christmas. Despite it being a few months away, I am already creating a list of things to get. 
On top of that List is a splitter. So far I have always pushed this purchase off, as other things seemed more relevant like a saddlery knife, more colours of thread, and so on.
In my latest projects I realised that a splitter is slowly due. I started to use more looping and having to use several leathers for a project, which shall end up sort of unifrom, is not very satisfying. 

So I am searching for a good, durable and cheap option to add to my tiny portable "workshop", for splitting leather for looping, round stitching, raising etc. I am mainly doing dog collars, am planning for some horse equipment in the near future and also some belts. It has to be available in Europe, without crashing the bank, so Tandy (I guess that's IVAN in Europe), Weaver and Osborn are off the table. I already checked the secondhand market, but it seems that everyone, who has a splitter, does not want to get rid of it or exactly knows how much a good splitter is worth. My favoured budget would be roughly 100 - 150 € ($117.14 -$ 175.71), if that is reasonable. I'm not a professional (yet)  so I don't see a point in spending more, despite me being unable to even spend up to 1000€ ($1171.40) on such a thing in this economy. I am not searching for a premium solution, just a very basic splitter of maximum 15 cm width (5.9"/6"), that does its job without any major hiccups. 

Maybe anyone has a good recommendation. 

Best, 
Tove 

[Mulesaw]

Splitters seem to hold their value really well.

I have considered buying one from Temu, they have one that looks a lot like the standard Tandy/Ivan model,and it is inside your budget frame. But it is only able to split around 7-8 cm as far as I have been able to tell.

If you are mainly dealing with straps of various widths, it might be enough though.
They are experts in taking photos that make the stuff look bigger than it is. And they inform about the total widfth of the machine(24 cm) and the total width of the blade (15 cm), but most of the time they don't tell the usable size of the blade. 

I am guessing that most Tandy splitters are made in China as well, so the quality is probably similar. You might need to resharpen the blade, as it might not be super sharp out of the box.

There is also Kleinanzeigen.de and Facebook marketplace that might have some that you can use. But for your budget, Temu / Alibaba is probably the best bet.

Brgds Jonas

[Tove09Tilda]

1 hour ago, Mulesaw said:

Splitters seem to hold their value really well.

I have considered buying one from Temu, they have one that looks a lot like the standard Tandy/Ivan model,and it is inside your budget frame. But it is only able to split around 7-8 cm as far as I have been able to tell.

If you are mainly dealing with straps of various widths, it might be enough though.
They are experts in taking photos that make the stuff look bigger than it is. And they inform about the total widfth of the machine(24 cm) and the total width of the blade (15 cm), but most of the time they don't tell the usable size of the blade. 

I am guessing that most Tandy splitters are made in China as well, so the quality is probably similar. You might need to resharpen the blade, as it might not be super sharp out of the box.

There is also Kleinanzeigen.de and Facebook marketplace that might have some that you can use. But for your budget, Temu / Alibaba is probably the best bet.

Brgds Jonas

Thank you Jonas, 
I already had a look at Kleinanzeigen (no saddlery tools at all, or for a hell lot of money!) and Facebook, but that is not necessarily that popular in Germany. 
I already saw the Tandy/IVAN "rebuilds" and was wondering if anyone has one of these and might be able to tell a bit about it. 
I guess 7-8 centimetres still does the job. I will have a look at those and try to figure out more about their quality and ability to do their job! 
 

If it is a Tandy "rebuild" there should be a high chance that the Tandy/ Ivan HI-TECH Baldes for 45€ a pack should fit. To me that sounds like a good bet. 

Best, 
Tove

[billybopp]

10 minutes ago, Tove09Tilda said:

Thank you Jonas, 
I already had a look at Kleinanzeigen (no saddlery tools at all, or for a hell lot of money!) and Facebook, but that is not necessarily that popular in Germany. 
I already saw the Tandy/IVAN "rebuilds" and was wondering if anyone has one of these and might be able to tell a bit about it. 
I guess 7-8 centimetres still does the job. I will have a look at those and try to figure out more about their quality and ability to do their job! 
 

If it is a Tandy "rebuild" there should be a high chance that the Tandy/ Ivan HI-TECH Baldes for 45€ a pack should fit. To me that sounds like a good bet. 

Best, 
Tove

For the most part, you wouldn't want to split anything wider than 7-8 cm in any case.  At that width it gets VERY hard to pull the leather through.  I have a small Tandy splitter, and the widest I ever split is 38mm for belts, and that takes a LOT of hard pulling to get through even when the blade is freshly stropped.   

- Bill

[Mulesaw]

2 hours ago, billybopp said:

For the most part, you wouldn't want to split anything wider than 7-8 cm in any case.  At that width it gets VERY hard to pull the leather through.  I have a small Tandy splitter, and the widest I ever split is 38mm for belts, and that takes a LOT of hard pulling to get through even when the blade is freshly stropped.   

- Bill

That is really good information! I have looked at the maximum width as a bit crucial without actually having the need. Most of my needs for splitting stuff is also strap related, and most of the straps are 1-1,5" in width. So I guess I can safely buy a Temu splitter then 🙂 I never really thought about the power needed to pull leather through, but it makes a lot of sense.

2 hours ago, Tove09Tilda said:

Thank you Jonas, 
I already had a look at Kleinanzeigen (no saddlery tools at all, or for a hell lot of money!) and Facebook, but that is not necessarily that popular in Germany. 
I already saw the Tandy/IVAN "rebuilds" and was wondering if anyone has one of these and might be able to tell a bit about it. 
I guess 7-8 centimetres still does the job. I will have a look at those and try to figure out more about their quality and ability to do their job! 
 

If it is a Tandy "rebuild" there should be a high chance that the Tandy/ Ivan HI-TECH Baldes for 45€ a pack should fit. To me that sounds like a good bet. 

Best, 
Tove

I always look at "Lederspaltmaschine" or Schusterwerkzeug, but whenever I find anything interesting, it is in Baden Württemberg or Bayern, and that is sadly a long way from the northern part of Denmark 🙂
At the moment I am tempted to drive to Rheinstetten (76287) for a really cool timber framing saw (There is a great tradition for timberframing in Germany, much more than in Denmark) But it is quite a long way with a trailer to pick it up.

 

[Tove09Tilda]

5 hours ago, billybopp said:

For the most part, you wouldn't want to split anything wider than 7-8 cm in any case.  At that width it gets VERY hard to pull the leather through.  I have a small Tandy splitter, and the widest I ever split is 38mm for belts, and that takes a LOT of hard pulling to get through even when the blade is freshly stropped.   

- Bill

Thank you very much, Bill! That is truley valuable information. I just went with the smallest I was able to get from a Germany based tool-vender, but you are definitely right. 7-8cm is totally fine. So I might also consider a Tandy Dupe. I found a HIGH-TECH Pro Dupe within my budget. That splitting is better than most workouts I already assumed, but am as a former University-Rower thrilled to experience that! - yep! We're a bit ... and learned to love everything that makes you feel every muscle in your body. 

3 hours ago, Mulesaw said:

That is really good information! I have looked at the maximum width as a bit crucial without actually having the need. Most of my needs for splitting stuff is also strap related, and most of the straps are 1-1,5" in width. So I guess I can safely buy a Temu splitter then 🙂 I never really thought about the power needed to pull leather through, but it makes a lot of sense.

I always look at "Lederspaltmaschine" or Schusterwerkzeug, but whenever I find anything interesting, it is in Baden Württemberg or Bayern, and that is sadly a long way from the northern part of Denmark 🙂
At the moment I am tempted to drive to Rheinstetten (76287) for a really cool timber framing saw (There is a great tradition for timberframing in Germany, much more than in Denmark) But it is quite a long way with a trailer to pick it up.

 

I also search for those parameters on a regular, with little luck. I just found a set of Henkel Holepunches for 120€, after checking back with my usual tool-vendor just an hour drive away, it was slightly overpriced. I feel like whoever owns leather tools, holds on to them for a loooong time and then overprices them just because people like us hope for a good deal. It is true luck if you find a good second hand offer! But truley I can unstand that. Sadly my granddads leather tools have been thrown away after his death. No-one thought that the youngest of his granddaughters (at that time 3 years old) would pick leather as her poison as well. Very sad as he learned the craft from military saddlers while being in american captivity as a prisoner of war, when he was only 17 and deserted the army prior to participating in any battle. I guess we would have had a lot of fun and his tools would have had a nice new home with me, especially if I should finally be able to start as an apprentice in a Berlin equestrian saddlery next year (if they take me and don't see my scientific publications, my begun PhD and the two University degrees as a no-go). 

[jcuk]

I have three splitting machines, the first one I got was the small Ivan which served me well and will probably do the same now. The other two are Osbourne's the first one I got was the 86 got it around 30 years ago fantastic tool (still has the same blade) the other is the 84 got it about 5 years ago going for a very good price on eBay to good to turn down it was like a new machine, think someone thought they would get into leather work and then quickly decided its not for them anyway the blade on the 84 is slightly out but I can live with that, just know which side of the blade will take more off.  When I first started this game I wanted a Dixon but they were a lot more  than the Osborne's at the time. There is a misconception in thinking because the blade is 8'' wide you can pull 8'' through not a chance the most I have pulled through is 4''a few times and thats making sure I have worked on the blade first, and that's something else to consider blade maintenance, thats not to be taken lightly because you can mess them up badly and they are not cheap to replace on the Osbourne's I will admit it took me a good long time and research at how to sharpen the blade, the reason the blades are wide is that you don't use the same place of the blade every time you need to split something that extends the the time between resharpening the blade. I have seen a new make of splitter well new make to me that looks a pretty good one, a bit more money that you want to spend but if you are wanting to get into saddlery it may be worth spending a bit more now instead of buying a cheap one for now and wanting something better later on. I have posted a some of links that maybe of interest one is a company that I think are in Germany you may know them already, the other is of the splitter that looks good for the money also no blade maintenance on this one as it uses a craft knife blade, and if you on YouTube there are some clips of people pulling wide pieces through.

https://www.dictum.com/en/tools/leatherworking-papercraft-upholstery-tools/leather-cutting-and-skiving-tools/?order=Relevancy.desc&p=2

https://www.metropolitanleather.com/shop/druckel/

Clip of one being used

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yn6KSJW9lg

Hope this helps

JCUK

[Digit]

I've bought a small splitter from AliExpress, which is basically a clamp for a snap-off knife and a spring-loaded roller. It's not European-made, but definitely within your budget: https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005005967041306.html

I have no idea how long the blades would last, but being standard snap-offs, you can easily replace them with something good. You can also strop those blades to keep them sharp.

As for splitting straps, I found that starting at an angle and moving the leather side-to-side so that the knife makes a cutting motion accross the leather (similar as to how you'd properly use a wood plane) makes it easier to pull the leather through.

I you have (a budget for) a bell skiver, you can also use that for splitting narrow-ish straps, possibly in two or three passes. Finding an affordable one second-hand can be challenging though; I've found a nearly-antique Fortuna for 450 euros last year on the Belgian variant of kleinanzeigen.