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.

[Artisan Dave]

Ed,

The blade MUST be sharpened on the right equipment - a good surface grinder with an experienced operator at the helm.

We offer a service whereby your blade is on the way back to you within 48 hours of us receiving it for resharpening. It is done by the same outfit that assisted us in the design, composition, and correct hardness of the blade. It is all they do - and they do it very well.

I enjoy going into their facility - full of great machinery, tools, and capable craftsmen - and they are really good people.

Cheers

[CowboySaddlery]

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

Hi Steve,

I have been using the Artisan 20" splitter I picked up this spring. The blade might be 20" but there is a guide bar in front of the blade that restricts the largest piece at 17&3/4".

I had Chas Weldon over with a box of leather he wanted to split and he said its the best he has tried. It is a good tool, makes me look forward to splitting something.

You might give Bob Douglas a call if your looking for a used splitter or Vandy Douglas at Sheridan Leather. But all in all I think the Artisan is a good value for the buck. We'll see how long the blade stays sharp.

Best regards,

Keith Valley

www.CowboySaddlery.com

[esantoro]

Hi Steve,

I have been using the Artisan 20" splitter I picked up this spring. The blade might be 20" but there is a guide bar in front of the blade that restricts the largest piece at 17&3/4".

I had Chas Weldon over with a box of leather he wanted to split and he said its the best he has tried. It is a good tool, makes me look forward to splitting something.

You might give Bob Douglas a call if your looking for a used splitter or Vandy Douglas at Sheridan Leather. But all in all I think the Artisan is a good value for the buck. We'll see how long the blade stays sharp.

Best regards,

Keith Valley

www.CowboySaddlery.com

Hi Keith,

Thanks for this update. Would you say that the Artisan 20" could split a 17" x 26" inch piece of 9/10 oz. bridle down to 5/6 oz without any problem? One pass? Two at the most?

Regards,

Ed

[esantoro]

Just came up with a new idea.

How well would this splitter work freestanding by hand, no motor and not attached to the table? I've got some space underneath my work bench that could fit the splitter.

I'll call Artisan to find out more, but how heavy would you say the standalone splitter is, without the table?

Ed

[bruce johnson]

Ed,

I talked to Dave and Steve at Artisan about some other stuff before they left for the holiday break. Someone else on the forum had asked me in a PM the same thing about the splitter, and so I asked them. They have shipped some to some places (overseas as I recall) of just the splitter. The people there had a table and motor to use, and the shipping cost savings were the issue. I asked about handwheeling it without the motor or stand - discouraged by them. Even though it is based on patterns from some old big splitters that are hand wheeled, it is harder to do that with this one. I hope I got that right, if not someone from Artisan can fill in the gaps here.

This is a big heavy brute. I would not think it is very portable to store under a bench and toss up there to use. You are going to slip, and say some bad words when it hits your foot. You'll say some more when you see the crack in the frame from dropping it. People I have talked with has been happy with it so far. It has been out in this form with this blade for about a year now, so there has been some use. With the old big reconditioned splitters selling for a couple hundred dollars or so per inch of blade, it is priced right if it continues to perform as it has for these guys.

[esantoro]

Ed,

I talked to Dave and Steve at Artisan about some other stuff before they left for the holiday break. Someone else on the forum had asked me in a PM the same thing about the splitter, and so I asked them. They have shipped some to some places (overseas as I recall) of just the splitter. The people there had a table and motor to use, and the shipping cost savings were the issue. I asked about handwheeling it without the motor or stand - discouraged by them. Even though it is based on patterns from some old big splitters that are hand wheeled, it is harder to do that with this one. I hope I got that right, if not someone from Artisan can fill in the gaps here.

This is a big heavy brute. I would not think it is very portable to store under a bench and toss up there to use. You are going to slip, and say some bad words when it hits your foot. You'll say some more when you see the crack in the frame from dropping it. People I have talked with has been happy with it so far. It has been out in this form with this blade for about a year now, so there has been some use. With the old big reconditioned splitters selling for a couple hundred dollars or so per inch of blade, it is priced right if it continues to perform as it has for these guys.

Bruce,

I was actually thinking of using it on the ground underneath my workbench and was hoping the splitter alone would weigh in at no more than 200lbs. Last time I talked with Artisan I was told the whole setup weighs about 450 lbs. But if what you say is true about the motor being a necessity, especially for 17"-wide leather, I should hold out until I have the real space for it.

I'm going to home depot tomorrow to pick up a handheld electronic planer for wood to experiment with and will return it if it's not feasible.

ed

[colttrainer]

Okay this machine has been out for a good while now. Anyone that got one & liked it in the start, changed their minds or are they proving to be worth the investment. Or is a person better off going with a band knife?

Al

[Art]

The one that Artisan sold was an almost copy of a Randall. It was designed to be set for one thickness and used that way all the time. I know saddlemakers that got the Artisan and didn't like it because it was difficult to "dial up" a particular thickness, it was always trial and error and a waste of a lot of leather resetting the thickness. They also did not like getting the blade realigned after resharpening, took forever they said. Basically they just motorized the basic machine and didn't make any modern day improvements to it, the Chinese are great copiers but lousy innovators. Case in point sewing machines, scivers, and band knife splitters; they make very good clones of highly successful and well engineered machines from Juki, Brother, Adler, Fortuna, and others; when your patent is up (and sometimes before), the Chinese are all over it like ......

That being said, it wouldn't take a lot to solve the above problems, just engineer a couple of dial indicators and construct a blade alignment jig. The upside to the Artisan splitter is that it was $2000, a Chinese band knife will run around $15000.

This might be a moot point as I have heard that Jerry is pursuing other interests since his illness. Dave now works with Steve and Artisan seems to have pulled their advertising, and they were not at the Boot and Saddlemakers trade show last weekend.

Art

Okay this machine has been out for a good while now. Anyone that got one & liked it in the start, changed their minds or are they proving to be worth the investment. Or is a person better off going with a band knife?

Al