Pull Through Splitters Are Junk

[reddevil76]

thanks all... gonna muck around with my splitter tonight with all these suggestions..

[hidepounder]

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.

Your blade position is critical and I'll bet you're right, that's probably the biggest problem. However, I also think you are stropping too much. You can dull your blade by over stropping as quickly as you can by splitting. When you strop it is pretty tough to not "round" your edge. The same thing happens to us when we strop our swivel blade knives, utility and head knives. The only real way to prevent "rounding" is to use a jig to strop with. So you really don't want to strop unless ytou really need to.

I emailed the seller and after one reply to find out the problem, he promptly "disappeared".

That's frustrating.....it's happened to me too! In the long run I probably ended up learning more so that now I don't need the help, but that didn't make it any less stressful, LOL!.

[reddevil76]

Your blade position is critical and I'll bet you're right, that's probably the biggest problem. However, I also think you are stropping too much. You can dull your blade by over stropping as quickly as you can by splitting. When you strop it is pretty tough to not "round" your edge. The same thing happens to us when we strop our swivel blade knives, utility and head knives. The only real way to prevent "rounding" is to use a jig to strop with. So you really don't want to strop unless ytou really need to.

That's frustrating.....it's happened to me too! In the long run I probably ended up learning more so that now I don't need the help, but that didn't make it any less stressful, LOL!.

I take a really dense piece of leather, glue it to a piece of flat wood, apply white jeweler's rough to the flesh side, and slide it across the blade in one direction.

Anyway, after trying many blade positions and going through a bag of scraps, it is finally working better. Yay!

[amuckart]

Glad to hear it's working better for you. If you want to get that blade *really* sharp, pick up a few sheets of 3M microfinishing abrasive and use them stuck to a sheet of thick glass. build a jig to hold the angle and you'll have something that'll split like a dream.

[jimsaddler]

Position of the Roller is critical! For splitting to light weights it should be fractionally behind to top dead centre. Sharpening must be done with a flat Knife board with 2 sides. Coarse and Fine ( Rouge is good) or use Valve Grinding Paste worked into a 3 mm piece of Flesh side Veg, glued onto a 3" X 3/4" X 18 to 20 " board with a handle cut into one end. Keep the Board at a low angle when sharpening and spread the strokes from side to side evenly across the Blade. If there is too much Shoulder on the Blade. Take it to a Tool Sharpener to grind it off to save a lot of time (hours) grinding it off. I cheat sometimes and do a quick Buff on the Calico Buff wheel but no more than twice or you'll get too much Shoulder to sharpen off.

If its a 6" splitter you can split 5" carefully down to .4MM by gradually taking it off in small amounts at a time. Remember that the Blade must be perfectly straight in relation to the Roller, same gap each side. Patience is the name of the game when sharpening the Blade. Don't cheat when it's taking forever to get the shoulder off, by changing the angle to finish quicker. Do it properly once and it's right for years. Cheat and you'll only get Scraps because of the need for Elephants to pull the Leather through. If it's done right it will take very little effort.

I Hope this helps you. As I seldom have to worry because of the 2 days I put into getting the Blade right a few years ago. Use the same Knife Board for your Round and Straight Knives also.

My Board is always by my right hand on the Leg of the Bench for quick access and use.

Kindest Regards.

Jim Saddler.

Glad to hear it's working better for you. If you want to get that blade *really* sharp, pick up a few sheets of 3M microfinishing abrasive and use them stuck to a sheet of thick glass. build a jig to hold the angle and you'll have something that'll split like a dream.

[reddevil76]

Thank you all... I will look into how I can better sharpen the blade.

As for its position, the manufacturer didn't make any markings on it or on the splitter itself, so I can only eyeball it when positioning it..

[hidepounder]

I take a really dense piece of leather, glue it to a piece of flat wood, apply white jeweler's rough to the flesh side, and slide it across the blade in one direction.

I'm sure you already know this, but in case someone reading doesn't, it is important that your stropping surface be very rigid. Like Jim mentioned, 3mm (or less). I like the really dense thin card stocks. They will hold rouge but won't compress causing rounding at the cutting edge. I have really noticed the difference on my swivel knife.....I have to sharpen substantially less since I've started stropping on thin rigid materials.

[Shane in Baton Rouge]

There is a decent looking crank splitter for sale in Australia on ebay right now.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1911-INDUSTRIAL-AMERICAN-ST-LOUIS-LEATHER-SPLITTER-TOOL-/300570765027?pt=AU_ToolsHardwareLocks&hash=item45fb69e6e3#ht_3626wt_1139

Its heavy, and too much to ship to the u.s. but may be something that would interest you...

[reddevil76]

Thanks Shane, but I need to split 8 inches wide pieces.. This looks like it splits straps only.. But thanks for looking out.

[Vwoodard]

I concure with the others comments about the sharpness of the blade. I purchased a used osborne pull thru splitter, and was doing good to split a piece of 3/4" wide latigo thru it. I sharpened it using the method in one of the Al Stolman books, and got it to the point I could split a piece of 1 1/4" veg tan with a little effort. A friend who is good with tool sharpening, saw me struggling at a show I was at with it, and offered to sharpen it. I figured what the heck, why not. He spent about an hour using what is known as the Scary Sharp method of sharpening (about what the others have posted on here for sharpening) and the thing was so sharp that I damn near fell out of my chair backwards because it cut not only the 1 1/4" wide like i was cutting HOT butter, it went thru a piece of 3" wide the same way.

I am sure the positioning may have a little to do with it, but, the sharpening made a believer of me... It's time to do it again, but it was well worth the time and effort!

Vince