Artisan 20" Stationary Knife Splitter

[Steve]

Anybody used one of these Artisan 20" splitter? I'm interested in a big splitter and would sure like to hear the opinion of anybody thats used one of these.

Thanks

Steve

[bruce johnson]

Steve,

I am seriously considering a big splitter. Depending on how the year progresses, end of this year or after the first maybe. I got the nickle tour of the new one from Artisan at the show. There are also an Artisan folk or two here on the forum, and I hope they can fill us all in with the 25 cent tour. Apparently they got the blade material figured out. What I saw in the demo looked good. You can run the motor or clutch it with the motor off and hand wheel the work through. The down side about demos, show horses, and sale horses, you always show what they do best. Jerry was cutting little 3-4" wide pieces of what looked like chrometan or oiled leather with it. He was shaving off cigarette paper thicknesses. Probably like opening sunflower seeds with a jackhammer for this monster. I have two bench splitters that laugh at that too. I can pull 7" or so of that material through my 10" Chase easy enough. I asked him about splitting wide pieces of vegtan. He said it would. (Artisan guys and gals - That would be a good demo. The guy who only needs to split 4" chrometan probably doesn't have the 20" high on his list. The guy who might run skirts or a binder cover through one does. Show us the cool stuff it does).

There are some old shops that have the old wide handwheeled splitters too. Usually those are spoken for long before they are ever considered for sale though.

[esantoro]

I had a good look around the workshop today to see if I can make room for this 20" splitter, which I sure could use.

Ed

[Artisan Dave]

The approximately 4" leather was Herman Oak vegtan. The demonstration of splitting skirting into 10 or 12 paper thin slices was a demonstration of how fine you can control your splits.(Although Steve tells me he was asked to split some chrometan as well)

Prior to loading his Splitter on the back of his truck Chan Geer asked us to split a full 20" wide piece of skirting and it performed perfectly. For those of you who know Chan, contact him and get it straight from the master.

You may also want to contact Brock or Jason Lynch, Carl Savaco for further references. I will be happy to give anyone who contacts me a much longer list.

I personally split, on at least 10 occasions, full 20" skirting for those who seriously asked me to.

If all our demonstrations were on 20" wide pieces of leather - we would have easily added an additional $2500.00 - $3500.00 in leather costs. I'm sure we all realize how expensive leather is these days.

This splitter was over 2 years in the developing - we did not bring it to the marketplace until we knew it was ready. It is a great piece of equipment and we are proud of its performance.

Thank you.

Edited June 12, 2008 by Artisan Dave

[J-Bar]

We have the Artisan 20" splitter in our shop. I have run skirts through it as well as a few cantle bindings. Not to mention numerous smaller projects. The splitter has done everything we needed it to do and has been a nice addition to the shop. It is the first splitter I have had with a motor on it, so that is a nice quality and saves me a lot of sweat. Ours made it to the shop ready to run and we put it to use right away. Great Splitter!

Jason

[bruce johnson]

Jason,

Thanks for the feedback. Your experiences fit with another saddlemaker that Dave referred me to. They have have used theirs about 6 months and not had to dress the blade yet. Sounds like the real deal and something that will find its way into my shop.

[Steve]

Jason and Dave

Thanks for the feedback on the splitter

Bruce,

I bit the bullet and ordered a splitter from Artisan last week. I should get it in a few weeks. I'll let you know how it works when it gets here.

Steve

[J-Bar]

Bruce I think you may have spoke to my father a couple of weeks ago.

Jason

[esantoro]

I don't know just when I'll be able to get one of these, but I'm scratchin' the itch more and more every day. Does anyone know how expensive it would be to replace the blade? Instead of risking screwing up the blade by sharpening it myself, was thinking of sending it out to be sharpened when needed and using a replacement. Or I could just learn how to sharpen correctly.

I long for the day when I can just order a side of bridle leather and split it myself to whatever thickness needed.

About the demo: It seems that chrome tanned leather is much more difficult to split. Whatever the splitter could do to chrome tanned , should be even easier on vegetable tanned leather.

Ed

[Bree]

Jerry gave me a demo of the 20" splitter in Columbus. Granted he did not split wide leather but I think Dave hit the nail on the head as to why he didn't use 20" pieces.... cost. For the several pieces he did split, that machine split them like a hot knife running through butter. It certainly caused me to jones for one myself. But I wasn't there looking for a splitter. I bought a big stitcher instead which I am quite pleased with.

Bottom line... I would buy that machine for myself with full confidence after seeing it in action.