Old leatherworking machines - Show and tell

[bruce johnson]

Janice,

Yep, looks like you have a Landis 30 crank and a Krebs style. I think that a few manufacturers built the Krebs style - I have had one with the Krebs tag on it, an Osborne 85, and right now have a Randall Krebs on the bench. Is there any manufacturer tag on yours?

I am attaching pics of the current lineup. I just bought a nice American crank splitter, pretty much unused. I have the black CS Osborne Chase 10" I pretty much keep set at 8 oz thickness. That is a common weight for me to split to. I also have a 12" Hanson Chase on the bench. I can pull anything up to about 11" through it. I can level about anything but saddle skirts with it. I have a flush mount 12" Hanson Chase I got mainly to have the blade as a backup for the mounted one. It is kind of neat, the sides adjust independently, so you could set one high and the other low to split wedges I guess. You mount these over a hole in the bench and the skivings fall through. My hands down favorite is the HF Osborne Chase style. It has a simple mechanism, a single knob slides a double wedge bar back and forth that raises the roller. I don't have it mounted, it is retired and will be part of a museum display bench at some point. I have a Spitler pattern Osborne splitter enroute. I bought it for a buddy who just wants one to split strap and do some laps with. I may end up refurbishing it and keeping it, and find him an 84 type of some variety. My name is Bruce, and I am a splitteraholic.......

[Janice]

Hi Bruce, nice collection of splitters you have there.

So my Krebs is a style then, good to know. There is no makers mark on it anywhere, so I was unsure.

I dont use it much, got used to the landis crank handle first. (lazy I guess!)

Thanks, Jan

[Henry]

Bruce,

Nice collection of splitters. What is the splitter in the fourth picture. Is that the one that you said you can split wedges? Never seen one like that before. I guess I will have to post my collection one of these days, seems I have a few you are missing!

Henry

[bruce johnson]

Henry,

The black one in the fourth picture is the HF Osborne. It still has a little of the gold striping paint in some places. The one on the far right is the flush mount. On all the other Chase styles I have had, the top roller moved as a unit no matter which knob was turned. On the flush mount each knob controls the height independently on that side. I have tried to use it to skive with for fun, and it sort of gets you close. A guide would really help it with that I guess. The crank skiver and bell knife are the tools for that when it needs to be dead on.

My favorite users are the Chase patterns for most uses. With the top and bottom rollers and long blade bevels the leather feeds evenly and doesn't climb a bevel or flip up and chop off. The top roller on the Krebs helps with that too. The dial on the Krebs makes it repeatable.

[twofour878]

Those are some nice looking machines. I've been meaning to post a pic of my new aquisition, an old Singer, but have been too lazy. I'll post some pics of it in the morning once I get off work, all I can remember for sure is the manual says copyright 1970. The best part about it is that I got it for 30$ at a barn sale. The lady said she may have some other old leather tools that she'll call me about if she happens to find them.

Do you guys know how easy those old singers are to pull apart and restore? It's a long arm one that when I talked to a guy in a local shop he called them a boot making machine. This one is very dirty so i want to rip it apart, clean it and repaint it. Again I'll post some pictures of it in the morning.

Edited August 21, 2009 by twofour878

[twofour878]

Here's the dirty thing. It's a 29k51. I'm having trouble getting it to sew consistently so I'm playing with the knobs and stuff. Anyone know where I could get a breakdown diagram? Or maybe a better manual? The one I have sucks.

Second one is a closer shot of the top.

Last one is a shot of it in my "workshop"

Edited August 21, 2009 by twofour878

[china]

That machine is alot older than 1970 you can date it by the serial no. and look it up on the singer site, it would be pre 1950 at a guess, it is a boot pacher you can still buy most parts for them they are still made today

[twofour878]

cool thank you very much.

[broncobuster]

I dont think its threaded right. thats probaly the problem. also if you go to proleptic.com I think it is they have many manuals you can get. good luck Bronc

[oldtimer]

I dont think its threaded right. thats probaly the problem. also if you go to proleptic.com I think it is they have many manuals you can get. good luck Bronc

Here you can find manuals to download for free : http://www.singermachines.co.uk/Parts_&amp.../indstbooks.htm