Restore This Splitter?

[Andrew Chee]

Hello all, I just purchsed this chase pattern 8"splitter on eBay. I think it's a W.H.Horn chase pattern splitter cause it says "W.H.Horn" on the blade. The splitter is in decent condition. There's some pitting and surface rust but everything turns and all the screws seem to be working. The blade is gonna need to be resharpened. I'm going to look into a local woodworking place near me to see if they can professionally sharpen the blade.

I've attached some pics of the splitter. Based on the condition of this splitter, should I try to restore it? I basically bought this splitter to use and not to collect so I just want it to work well. Do you guys think it's necessary or worthwhile to clean it up even more? If so, how would you go about cleaning it up? I'm not familiar with cleaning up old machinery so any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Andrew

[dirtclod]

It's hard to tell anything about it because all of the pictures are upside down.

[steveh]

I took a blade to machine shop and they found the correct angle angle and reground the bevel on surface grinder. The surface grinder is very precise and use a coolant that keeps the blade fro over heating so you dont lose the temper. I also made a fixture with correct angle and glued a 1200 grit paper to a steel plate to touch up the blade when needed.

Steve

[bruce johnson]

Andrew, I would at least clean up the rollers on it. The bottom one will come out easily. You can wipe them with either some steel wool or fine wet-dry.

[gringobill]

Hello all, I just purchsed this chase pattern 8"splitter on eBay. I think it's a W.H.Horn chase pattern splitter cause it says "W.H.Horn" on the blade. The splitter is in decent condition. There's some pitting and surface rust but everything turns and all the screws seem to be working. The blade is gonna need to be resharpened. I'm going to look into a local woodworking place near me to see if they can professionally sharpen the blade.

I've attached some pics of the splitter. Based on the condition of this splitter, should I try to restore it? I basically bought this splitter to use and not to collect so I just want it to work well. Do you guys think it's necessary or worthwhile to clean it up even more? If so, how would you go about cleaning it up? I'm not familiar with cleaning up old machinery so any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Andrew

Andrew, Bruce is the expert on these old splitters. I have bought a couple of them lately and have they were both in pretty rough shape when I got them. I tore into the first one like a bull in a china closet since it was torn all to hell in shipping anyway. So I have done a lot of learning about them.

One thing I will warn you about, is that if you totally disassemble the machine it's pretty tricky getting it adjusted and fine tuned when you put it back together.

It looks like your blade is in pretty good shape, better than either of my old blades.

Like Bruce said you can and should clean up your rollers and you can do that with out totally taking it apart. I used a wire wheel on a grinder to get a lot of rust and crud off and then used a little 1" belt sander with a very worn belt to polish up the rollers. If you're not a mechanical kind of guy like Bruce said, you might be better off sticking with steel wool and some wet or dry paper of 400 grit and higher to clean up the rollers. Using the wet or dry with WD-40 or kerosene will take off rust.

You can also use the same kind of solvent and a small wire brush or cloth to wipe down the rest of it to clean it up.

Again, if you aren't a pretty good mechanic, I'd advise you not to take it completely apart.

These spltters are a lot more complicated than the Osborne model 86 styles.

Bill

[Andrew Chee]

I took a blade to machine shop and they found the correct angle angle and reground the bevel on surface grinder. The surface grinder is very precise and use a coolant that keeps the blade fro over heating so you dont lose the temper. I also made a fixture with correct angle and glued a 1200 grit paper to a steel plate to touch up the blade when needed.

Steve

Are these blades supposed to be flat ground? It looks like someone might have tried to resharpen the bald and changed the blade angle cause the first 1/4" or so of the blade is a different angle from the rest of the blade.

Andrew

[Andrew Chee]

Andrew, Bruce is the expert on these old splitters. I have bought a couple of them lately and have they were both in pretty rough shape when I got them. I tore into the first one like a bull in a china closet since it was torn all to hell in shipping anyway. So I have done a lot of learning about them.

One thing I will warn you about, is that if you totally disassemble the machine it's pretty tricky getting it adjusted and fine tuned when you put it back together.

It looks like your blade is in pretty good shape, better than either of my old blades.

Like Bruce said you can and should clean up your rollers and you can do that with out totally taking it apart. I used a wire wheel on a grinder to get a lot of rust and crud off and then used a little 1" belt sander with a very worn belt to polish up the rollers. If you're not a mechanical kind of guy like Bruce said, you might be better off sticking with steel wool and some wet or dry paper of 400 grit and higher to clean up the rollers. Using the wet or dry with WD-40 or kerosene will take off rust.

You can also use the same kind of solvent and a small wire brush or cloth to wipe down the rest of it to clean it up.

Again, if you aren't a pretty good mechanic, I'd advise you not to take it completely apart.

These spltters are a lot more complicated than the Osborne model 86 styles.

Bill

Thanks, I guess I'll try with a wire brush on a handheld drill to get the rust off with some WD-40. I have a 18"x3" belt sander that I flip upside down for sanding down edges prior to finishing but I don't have any 400 grit paper for it (hard to get something that fine for this type of sander) so I might have to just use regular sandpaper and do it by hand.

I think I'll mostly just try to clean up the rollers since that's what the leather comes into contact with. I'll use some WD-40 and try to wipe down some of the other parts but as long as the other parts don't affect function, I guess I can leave them be. Thanks.

Andrew

[Sovran81]

Thanks, I guess I'll try with a wire brush on a handheld drill to get the rust off with some WD-40. I have a 18"x3" belt sander that I flip upside down for sanding down edges prior to finishing but I don't have any 400 grit paper for it (hard to get something that fine for this type of sander) so I might have to just use regular sandpaper and do it by hand.

I think I'll mostly just try to clean up the rollers since that's what the leather comes into contact with. I'll use some WD-40 and try to wipe down some of the other parts but as long as the other parts don't affect function, I guess I can leave them be. Thanks.

Andrew

Use a brass brush with the drill. Steel wire can quickly eat into the steel. The brass will only remove the rust and not damage the underlying steel.

[bruce johnson]

Are these blades supposed to be flat ground? It looks like someone might have tried to resharpen the bald and changed the blade angle cause the first 1/4" or so of the blade is a different angle from the rest of the blade.

Andrew

Andrew. Some of the blades are flat and some are slightly hollow ground. I go off the back edge of the bevel and the tip to set my angle. Sometimes I am doing the whole face if flat and sometimes it is just the first bit of the blade and the back edge if it was hollow ground.

[steveh]

Are these blades supposed to be flat ground? It looks like someone might have tried to resharpen the bald and changed the blade angle cause the first 1/4" or so of the blade is a different angle from the rest of the blade.

Andrew

The blade I have was improperly sharpen on the edge like yours. The machinist used an angle finder on the original factory grind. A surface grinder usees an electro magnet base chuck to hold your blade The grinding wheel roatates perpendicual to edge and runs back and forth the length of the blade. this process will put a hollow grind , how much depends on the diameter of the wheel, the smaller the wheel will produce more of a hollow grind.This blade was from a krebs style splitter and the sharping worked great.