I Think I Need A 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?