Any Campbell Keystone Splitter Owners?

[reddevil76]

I have a 6 inch heritage splitter but recently decided to splash out for an 8 inch keystone as I wanted a splitter which I could lock down the handle. Though the $130 shipping was a pain, I thought I rather buy quality.

To my horror I received the splitter today and found the below:

-There was surface rust on the roller and hold down bar.

- The roller was not polished (is it supposed to be? All other splitters have polished rollers).

- The paint was chipped off the frame in several places.

- Metal burrs from production was all over

- The gold paint used to paint the company name was smeared in several places along the rear of the blade

- The blade was not mounted properly, and as I don't have the right size spanner now, I can't straighten it and test the splitter. But the blade doesn't look polished, so I have doubts on its sharpness. There are also alot of rough scratches further up the bevel.

It looks like a china knock off even though I bought it direct from Campbell. Even my Heritage which cost half of it was better made. The burrs was really a sign of "can't be bothered".

Did you receive yours in this condition?

[Trox]

Hi, would you care to post a picture?, And did you complain about it yet.

Tor

[CampbellRandall]

Please contact us so we can discuss your problems.

• The surface rust on the machine, chips, and blade position could be due to handling, as I assume this was the machine shipped to Singapore?
  
• We no longer leave the roller unfinished, but have instead opted to tool black the surface to limit corrosion. This will not effect the performance.
  
• Burrs? Please email pictures if you can.
  
• I apologize for the gold paint. The lettering is still hand painted, and I can assume the mechanic was not steady in his work. We actually have chosen to stop painting the letters on future models as it is too hard to do free hand.
  
• The blade was mounted true and fully sharpened - sharp enough to shave with. We test every machine before it leaves our doors. I can only assume the machine was handled roughly and the blade was knocked out of alignment. The roll has a groove for alignment. Do you need us to send a wrench for adjustment?
  

Please le me know how we can help.

- Dan Naegle

[reddevil76]

It's hard to capture all the nicks on the paint due to the camera and lighting. But here's some pics. I've just managed to straighten the blade and try it. Despite trying positioning it exactly center of roller, slightly before, slightly behind, I can't get it to work well.

It either takes great effort to split a two inch strap or it'll chop it. And when it does split, I can't go lower than 4 oz and it just get stuck there at the blade. If this it what it can do, then I could've just used my Heritage. Reason I bought this is to split larger than 6 inch.

I've removed the blade will send it for sharpening tomorrow. Will touch up the rusty and chip areas with 1K paint. Too far to return it. And no reply to my email anyway.

Not everyone seems to wear the Made In USA tag with pride anymore.

[reddevil76]

Ok I just posted and see Dan's reply. Indeed I noted the groove and have used it to align the blade. No luck. On my Heritage, once I push the handle down, the blade will make an initial cut, then I pull.

On this, it just squashes against the blade, I have to lap the handle around and wiggle the strap side to side to get an initial cut before I can fully push the handle down and lock it.

All the internal foam and newspaper was intact when I open the box. So I can't comment if all these is due to shipping. In any case, I don't see flakes of paint on the foam.

Anyway I'm not asking for anything in return or refund, just tell me how to get it to split 7 inch so that I don't regret this hefty purchase.

[Trox]

Hi,

have you tried to polish/ strop the blade yet. I have a six inch (6,5) Heritage like yours, a eight and a ten inch Osborn # 86. I will have trouble splitting six inches in any of them. For wide splitting like that you will need a hand or motor powered splitter. If you polish the blade very well you might be able to do it.

Do not send that blade away for sharpening, the edge look good to me. Sharpening means to shape an edge, to get it to split good you need to polish it well on a stropping board or a polishing wheel (with polishing paste).

I have bought new leather tools from about all the todays big companies, Osborn, Dixon and Blanchard, non of them delivers the steel polished. They leave that for the customers.

I try to express my impartial opinion here. The tool should not have any surface rusts, smeared or missing paint when you receive it.

I really do not understand why the roller has to be polished, thought. Apart from corrosion protection, but I am not an expert.

I would think a brushed roller would work better.

The blade alignment is a pain in the a..... on all pull true splitters. If it has an alignment mark now that will change with sharpening, when the blade gets shorter (mark the top center of the roller with some ink on both sides and place the blade according to them)

I and several others have been disappointed when we received un polished tools and it did not look like the old tools we are used to see. Now however, I prefer to do my own polishing. I was not around 100 years ago and I do not know if they came fully polished then. We can ask Joseph Dixon he is a member here 102 years old, he delivers the same tools today as his father did 170 years ago.

Everybody must take of their splitting blades and polish them once in a wile. With my six in Heritage I have to do that allot, it do not hold an sharp edge very long. We judge the quality of a blade on how long it keeps sharp.

Again, I understand your disappointment when you see rust and you cant get it to split right away. The company must consider packing it in grease for long over seas shipments.

However, I do not think its that bad, polish the blade on your stropping board and I am sure it splits good.

Good luck

Tor

[reddevil76]

Hi Tor, thanks for the advise. I've considered stropping the blade. But usually I make it worse, I'm a bad hand at polishing edges. Perhaps I'll just get the machine shop to do a micro bevel for me.

Dylan

[Trox]

Hi Tor, thanks for the advise. I've considered stropping the blade. But usually I make it worse, I'm a bad hand at polishing edges. Perhaps I'll just get the machine shop to do a micro bevel for me.

Dylan

Hi Dylan,

Its nothing to it. You do have a leather strop to polish your knifes? If not make yourself a strop of a piece of plywood (size up to you, mine is about 5 x 45 cm), then glue a piece of firm wegtan leather to it (flesh side down). Cower the plywood with the leather and leave one end free for a handle (or buy one)

http://www.tandyleather.eu/en-eur/search/searchresults/3325-00.aspx

Like the Tandy strop above. Then buy some aggressive polishing paste ( Campbell Randall has allot of stuff like this, ask them).

Cover the leather with paste and start to strop your every tool. You would wonder how you managed without it, I do too.

When sharpening an edge you work against the edge, when polishing you work away from the edge. Its really very simple, drag your splitter blade over the board (away from the edge), keep on doing this until it has a mirror like surface. You will find allot of tips on on youtube and here

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://bullwhips.org/how-make-bull-whip/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/bullwhip_pair_4_111511.jpg&imgrefurl=http://bullwhips.org/?p%3D4901&h=599&w=799&sz=69&tbnid=Qz_HNLY82t3p6M:&tbnh=90&tbnw=120&zoom=1&usg=__oKDvpsFd1XE3NsnIZDM8FXj2xFE=&docid=3L8iqr6FGUBY0M&sa=X&ei=z1LbUYOYFOXa4ASE8oDAAw&ved=0CIIBEPUBMAk&dur=36

All your leather tool can be stopped on this board, you will see a built up of black on your board after you stroke your blade over it. Thats steel from the polishing, it will mix with the paste and help in the polishing process.

Every leather workshop has a strop like this, and many also have a felt wheel on their bench grinder or drill (dremel etc.) who does the same job. When you done with the first polishing of your blade, the next time will only require a few strokes to get it up and ready again.

You will soon learn this and use it on your every tool. Even needles and surely awls, this will be your most important leather tool.

You will find a lot of videos of sharpening the round knife

It has a more complicated edge. Nevertheless, its the same job; always strop away from the edge ( you can use a Little force, you want break anything)

If you look at the steel right after a sharpening under a strong magnify glass, you will see it still has a very coarse surface. A blade is no good on leather without polishing. When you buy your polishing paste, do not buy a white color for fine honing. Buy a bit more aggressive one ( usually Gray, green or red color), then you never have to sharpen any of your blades again; polishing will be enough.

Good luck

Tor

[reddevil76]

Hi Tor, I do have a strop from Goodsjapan which I use for my swivel knives. But the leather was soft, so I split a piece of veg tan myself (used splits to ensure its level) then I ran the split several times through a pasta roller, glued it to the strop and applied green rouge.

It works on my swivel knives, but on my Heritage, i find I just end up dulling the blade by stropping it. I gave up and just sent it to the machine shop whenever necessary.

Having to ship almost everything from US, for once I have something which I could 'buy' locally, I just allow myself to be lazy.

[reddevil76]

Again, I understand your disappointment when you see rust and you cant get it to split right away. The company must consider packing it in grease for long over seas shipments.

However, I do not think its that bad, polish the blade on your stropping board and I am sure it splits good.

Good luck

Tor

The shipping took only a week.. So I don't think the fact that I'm an overseas customer made a difference. Anyway, having bought Tandy tooling leather, I'm well trained in dealing with disappointment. I guess I can work this one out.