I Think I Need A Splitter

[Chavez]

Hi!

I sometimes need to thin leather straps, and so far I have tried using a pairing knife and, following someone's advice here, a safety beveller for splitting/skiving. Both work fine on small areas but they are useless if I need to split a long strap =( I haven't tried using a safety skiver yet but I guess I wont get any consistent results with it.

I am therefore looking to get myself a splitting machine. Ideally I would like to keep it under £200 and the little splitter here:

http://leprevo.co.uk/photos/splitting-machine.htm

looks like a good solution for a good price.

Has anyone used these splitters and how good are they? Are there better solutions for splitting straps out there?

I understand that since they don't have a handle, you can't adjust splitting thickness on the go, but at the moment I'll be quite happy if I can split a fixed thickness, as long as it works and the thickness is consistent =)

Thank you for the advice!

[Itch]

I have the same one that is in that photo..It is a toy compared to a

save your money and get the big one..This will last a very long time..

[Mijo]

I have the Osborne version of that splitter, it works well when you get it dialed in right. I also have a need to split straps and this was a huge step up from a knife / safety skiver. I'd recommend paying the extra cash and getting a pull splitter that can also skive, which is what I wish I had done.

[Chavez]

Thanks Itch!

I think these bad boys start from £500 and I will only able to fork this much cash out in about a year's time, given that I don't buy a Tippman Boss stitcher any time soon (still not sure if I need one at this stage).

I usually try to get the best tools I can afford (and it always pays off!) but got to stick to my budget. To be honest, even £150 is pushing the budget a bit (just didn't think I will need a splitter so soon).

Is the cheap one OK, or am I really better off trying to find a good used one on ebay?

[Chavez]

hmm.

Also an interesting solution:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Craft-Sha-Leathercraft-Safety-Skife-Knife-Flat-Leather-Skiver-Plane-/110913244569?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19d2f1cd99

Though it seems really narrow as I need to skive straps up to 2inches wide. Has anyone used these?

[Sylvia]

hmm.

Also an interesting solution:

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item19d2f1cd99

Though it seems really narrow as I need to skive straps up to 2inches wide. Has anyone used these?

That looks a lot like a hand plane used for wood. hmmm wonder if a wood plane would work if one sharpened the blade really well?

[Chavez]

Yeah, I was thinking about it too.

Would any wood plane owners be so kind to give it a try and let us know if straps can be split this way? =)

I believe that 2in is the common width of plane blades and that would be enough for me for a start. At least if it can keep me going for half a year I'll invest into a proper splitter =)

[Chavez]

Update:

Ordered myself an adjustable wood plane to experiment with. At 1/60th of a price of a proper splitter its definitely worth a try =)

[Ferg]

Goodsjapan is a great company to work with. I have not tried the block planes for skiving. I can see several problems. The blade would need to be extremely sharp and kept that way of course. Holding the piece of leather

would present a problem I believe. Angle of blade would be critical also.

If you decide to try it, make sure you let the rest of us know how it worked.

ferg

Update:

Ordered myself an adjustable wood plane to experiment with. At 1/60th of a price of a proper splitter its definitely worth a try =)

[Chavez]

Hi ferg,

I'll let you know if it works when my plane arrives. I don't think holding the leather will be a problem as I only need to skive leather straps, but the blade angle might need a bit of adjustment.

Of course there is also the problem that even if it does skive, it will only skive a fixed thickness off the leather, so the thickness of the actual piece with the grain may vary (which won't happen with a splitter).

But if it does work, it will be a great tool to use until I buy a proper splitter!

[Saffo]

How wide are the straps that you're splitting? I've got a lace splitter that I made from an old spice rack and a trapezoid blade in about fifteen minutes, and it handles straps just fine, so long as they're not much over an inch wide.

[Chavez]

Hi Saffo,

I need to split 1-2 inch straps. I thought about making a splitter that would use regular double-edged razor blades (I have lots of them - go through 4 blades a month and they are still pretty sharp for splitting when I bin them.) but couldn't think of anything that would work that's easy to make with some spare materials that I have.

I'll try and see if the plane works first =)

Hi Saffo,

I need to split 1-2 inch straps. I thought about making a splitter that would use regular double-edged razor blades (I have lots of them - go through 4 blades a month and they are still pretty sharp for splitting when I bin them.) but couldn't think of anything that would work that's easy to make with some spare materials that I have.

I'll try and see if the plane works first =)

[Chavez]

Well, I managed to get an extra half an hour yesterday to play with a little wood plane (see link below)

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?client=opera&rls=en-GB&q=silverline+plane&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=10991320928050194906&sa=X&ei=OYEvUImEELDY0QXK44D4DA&ved=0CGgQ8wIwBA

I did not have enough time to grind all the machining traces off the blade, but I got it reasonably sharp and tried to skive a short strap.

The results were as follows:

1) Blade sticking out just a bit; mouth almost closed:

The plane doesn't skive, but it does a great job shaving the flesh side. So if you want to make an unlined item and you have a "hairy" flesh side, the plane does a great job of smoothing the flesh.

2) Blade sticking out a lot, mouth wide open:

The blade digs into the leather deep and tries to bite off quite a chunk of the flesh side, making skiving very difficult. Thickness of leather skived off lacks consistency.

3) Blade sticking out a bit less than in (2); mouth closed to leave about 1- 1.5mm gap:

The plane skives leather. It skives it pretty well, although I still didn't get that much consistency with it, although I got more control than in (2). I skived a 7oz strap down to about 3-5oz. The biggest problem is that leather is soft, so the plane skives at an angle if you don't get the pressure right and keep it parallel to the strap. This is how I ended up with 3oz on the left side of the strap and 5oz on the right =(

Overall the results seem okish for the first try. I'll play a bit more with the blade angle later to see if I can get better results. Its definitely better than skiving the whole length os a strap with a pairing knife, but I don't think it justifies not buying a splitter unless the results improve.

Oh yes, and this way of skiving is quite messy, with bits of flesh side flying all over the place if youre not careful!

Saffo, how did you make your little your little splitter?