Leather Skiver/splitter By Cowboy

[borlinoleather]

Hi Tom,

All leather accessories, you got on comfortable price, ebay and other online shopping portal give their own prices, go for good manufacturer company.

[JWP]

Tandy has new ones on sale this month for 249 bucks

[SRDcrafted]

I got the cowboy splitter from the eBay post. so far I deeply regret my purchase. I had been looking for months and trying to find a good splitter that wasn't for an outrageous price. time went on and I had seen the cowboy post in the past and by the time I needed a splitter I decided to get it. Its design is horrible. The roller doesn't roll when you apply enough pressure to the handle to make cutting contact between the leather and the blade When the handle is pushed down to engage the desired thickness, the lever pushes the roller up to a stop screw and wedges it against the lever and the screw making it more difficult, almost impossible, to turn when pulling the leather through. its hard to do one handed as well. Gripping the leather to pull it through was no small task either. I had to soften a pair of duck billed pliers with leather scraps and use those to pull my material through. otherwise the piece gets crumbled from the KUNG FU grip required to pull it through. The blade looks sharp and is sharp, when compared to a finger or a knuckle. But it doesn't seem sharp enough to catch and start cutting the leather piece I need to splitter . Its my fault for buying it because i know you get what you pay for and judging from the price of other splitters on the market $250+- wasn't worth squat. I DO NOT RECKOMEND THIS SPLITTER, unless you intend to be bold and buy it to make it work and prove me wrong. Please do and then message me to show me how to make it work and will take back everything I just wrote. I most likely will modify this item and try to get my money out of it. Sorry to be such a bummer but I think it should be known that you take your chances with purchasing this splitter.

[grmnsplx]

Interesting. I recently bought a tandy splitter. I just used it a few time playing around with it. I was looking at the cowboy, but the tandy one was on sale so I got that.

I must say though, the design looks identical to me. but for plastic knobs and a different paint job, I think they're the same...

Anyway, the tandy splitter worked fine out of the box. I split some 8oz and 5 oz veg down to 3oz and then I split that even further. I then grabbed a 3 inch wide piece of 2-3oz chrome tanned calf and split that in half or better. I was impressed.

Sorry to hear about the cowboy. Maybe I dodged the bullet.

[amuckart]

A lot of that sounds like the blade just isn't sharp enough. Splitter blades need to be really sharp to work well. If you wouldn't shave with it it's way too blunt. If you wouldn't let someone do surgery on you with it, it's too blunt.

[howie696]

I got the cowboy splitter from the eBay post. so far I deeply regret my purchase. I had been looking for months and trying to find a good splitter that wasn't for an outrageous price. time went on and I had seen the cowboy post in the past and by the time I needed a splitter I decided to get it. Its design is horrible. The roller doesn't roll when you apply enough pressure to the handle to make cutting contact between the leather and the blade When the handle is pushed down to engage the desired thickness, the lever pushes the roller up to a stop screw and wedges it against the lever and the screw making it more difficult, almost impossible, to turn when pulling the leather through. its hard to do one handed as well. Gripping the leather to pull it through was no small task either. I had to soften a pair of duck billed pliers with leather scraps and use those to pull my material through. otherwise the piece gets crumbled from the KUNG FU grip required to pull it through. The blade looks sharp and is sharp, when compared to a finger or a knuckle. But it doesn't seem sharp enough to catch and start cutting the leather piece I need to splitter . Its my fault for buying it because i know you get what you pay for and judging from the price of other splitters on the market $250+- wasn't worth squat. I DO NOT RECKOMEND THIS SPLITTER, unless you intend to be bold and buy it to make it work and prove me wrong. Please do and then message me to show me how to make it work and will take back everything I just wrote. I most likely will modify this item and try to get my money out of it. Sorry to be such a bummer but I think it should be known that you take your chances with purchasing this splitter.

My cowboy works great, very sharp and easy to use, it sounds like you need some help setting it up

[catskin]

I can't help wondering if the Cowboy on Ebay was there because it was faulty form the factory. Ebay is the place junk is disposed of. Very often. For someone who knows splitters it might be fixable.

[SRDcrafted]

I agree. This week I will take the blade to The Shear Shack and have him work his magic. I usually sharpen and strop blades myself (before somebody suggests it) but I want this one to be perfect. I also added 2 ball bearing components to the ends of the roller to help it roll and not just let the leather drag on it. It now rolls but like Leatherworker just mentioned I believe the blade isn't sharp enough so ill take it to a pro to get it to the right league firsts and then maintain it. Thank you folks for your suggestions and letting me vent.

[bkm]

I recently bought a Campbell-Randall Keystone splitter/skiver. I have found it to work exceptionally well for my purpose which is leveling six-foot long 3/4" straps and skivving a taper on the ends. The blade was sharp when I received it and splits the flesh side so smooth that after dye and a swipe with a wood slicker, it looks nearly as good as the finished side.

I mounted my splitter on an oak plank wide enough for the splitter and a little over two feet long. I clamp the oak plank to my workbench when I am using it, and I can put it away when I'm not using it. On the plank, I mounted some one-inch oak dowels like rollers (only I didn't bother to make them turn). I use these to guide the in-feed and out-feed so that I am sure the strap maintains pressure on the splitter's roller. Without these infeed and outfeed guides, I would have to lock the roller height handle and guide with my hand or the strap will lift off the roller and the blade will just go through the strap. The strap has to stay on the roller, so you need a little pressure behind and in front of the roller.

I've been leveling straps at 0.200" and when I check them, they're usually +/- 0.001 For straps, belts and so on, I don't see how it could get any better. If I wanted big pieces split or leveled I would order it from the tannery done on their band knife splitter.

[SRDcrafted]

I agree. I just sold it on ebay again only took 1 day which was a nice suprise. Plus I got my money back. I taking that and the money from my last big order, the western gun rig for a microphone, and going to buy an Osborne. A learning experience.