reddevil76 Posted June 25, 2011 Report Posted June 25, 2011 Especially this Heritage splitter that I have. Its handle doesn't even lock in place! I have to put my left foot on it whenever I am splitting a piece which requires me to pull with both hands. And why do the different splitters bother to vary the blade size from 4 to 8 inch when ALL of them can't split anything wider than 1.5 inch? The only way I can split a 2.5 inch strap through this junk is to tie one end of the strap to the tail of an elephant and whip it! I had accepted that I would have to buy leather in varying thickness to make different parts of the wallets. But sometimes a customer just wants a wallet made from the same side, and that's when I have to split 2.5 X 8 inch pieces & 3.5 X 8 inch pieces. Last night I went to a leather shop to borrow the bell skiver, 6 beautifully cut pieces came out all skewed after skiving and finally I had to bin them. Isn't there a better way to thin leather? Quote
Members Kevin Posted June 25, 2011 Members Report Posted June 25, 2011 You just need a band knife splitter, kinda like a bandsaw but horizontal. Just a few thousand and takes up the space of a dining room buffet. Fine leathergoods are not easy. Good luck, Kevin Quote
Members amuckart Posted June 25, 2011 Members Report Posted June 25, 2011 Have you tried a crank splitter? Quote -- Al. Medieval Stuff: http://wherearetheelves.net Non-Medieval, including my machines: http://alasdair.muckart.net
reddevil76 Posted June 26, 2011 Author Report Posted June 26, 2011 Have you tried a crank splitter? Would love to! But I live in Singapore and shipping that monster over would kill me.. Quote
hidepounder Posted June 26, 2011 Report Posted June 26, 2011 I don't share your views on pull through splitters. I just used mine to split a 5" wide piece of leather down to about 4/5 oz last night. If you can't pull a piece of 2"-3" leather through your splitter with a minimum of effort then your splitter blade is NOT sharp. I split belt blanks a lot with a pull through style splitter with no effort. Of course if I could a find a band knife splitter that I could afford, I'd have one, but until then I'm splitting with a pull through style splitter. Bobby Quote
Members cem Posted June 26, 2011 Members Report Posted June 26, 2011 Would love to! But I live in Singapore and shipping that monster over would kill me.. Cost me $285 USD to ship the Weaver one to Australia using Fed Ex, which I don't think is that bad considering it weighs alot, I split funny shaped things and the pull throughs just wouldn't work for me. It was money well spent I woudn't be without my handcrank now. Clair Quote
reddevil76 Posted June 26, 2011 Author Report Posted June 26, 2011 I don't share your views on pull through splitters. I just used mine to split a 5" wide piece of leather down to about 4/5 oz last night. If you can't pull a piece of 2"-3" leather through your splitter with a minimum of effort then your splitter blade is NOT sharp. I split belt blanks a lot with a pull through style splitter with no effort. Of course if I could a find a band knife splitter that I could afford, I'd have one, but until then I'm splitting with a pull through style splitter. Bobby I do strop it after every use. One thing though, could be the blade position. When I first got it, it shifted after the 4th to 5th skive. It could never work well after that. I emailed the seller and after one reply to find out the problem, he promptly "disappeared". Cost me $285 USD to ship the Weaver one to Australia using Fed Ex, which I don't think is that bad considering it weighs alot, I split funny shaped things and the pull throughs just wouldn't work for me. It was money well spent I woudn't be without my handcrank now. Clair Clair, does the patterns maintain their shape after splitting? Quote
Members cem Posted June 27, 2011 Members Report Posted June 27, 2011 Clair, does the patterns maintain their shape after splitting? Yes as long as you don't try and split it down too much to begin with e.g don't go from 10oz to 3oz do a split in between if you want thin stuff. I usually do a rough cut of the shape though and just put that through the splitter then trim it to the final shape this is mainly due to how I transfer a carving design though. I use a Klic N Kut Maxx 15 (like a vinyl cutter with a pen attachment) and I like a little bit of extra border on the leather just in case the Maxx is off a bit with it's calibration from the edge. Cheers, Clair Quote
dirtclod Posted June 27, 2011 Report Posted June 27, 2011 Red Devil try adjusting the blade if it's to close to the roller or crooked it won't cut right. Or it's that way on mine. Quote I'm old enough to know that i don't know everything.
Members amuckart Posted June 27, 2011 Members Report Posted June 27, 2011 Have a read of http://www3.telus.net/BrentBeach/Sharpen/ It's about plane blades, but it's just as applicable to splitter blades. Quote -- Al. Medieval Stuff: http://wherearetheelves.net Non-Medieval, including my machines: http://alasdair.muckart.net
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