Craftool Deluxe Leather Splitter?

[Toadflax]

I see that Tandy UK are doing a good reduction on this item at the moment and wondered if anyone has one /has used one / has any comments.

I'm after something primarily for stripping belt ends, having used hand skivers for a few years, but could never justify purchasing a splitter.

Price still isn't cheap, but this *looks* a good sturdy machine.

Any comments gratefully received.

Thanks

Geoff

[Chief31794]

I have one, you will need to sharpen the blade and keep it sharp. The machine works good on belts, that is what I use mine for primarily. It will have to be mounted securely.

Chief

[kwelna]

I agree, the blade is OK at best and will need to be sharpened.

I was a bit upset to see that there are no gradation markings on the thickness adjustment as there seem to be on other splitters.

It will handle up to about 3" wide leather after that width it is EXTREAMLY hard to pull the leather though.

You really need to bolt it down to a solid mounting,

I am currnetly looking for some one that can sharpen adn polish the blade up here in MN, I think that will help immensly.

[Toadflax]

Thanks for the replies. I'd imagined that I would have to do some work on a new blade, almost always having had to do so before.

I guess you might get around the lack of graduation markings by adding them yourself, or using known thickness shims in the gap, or even counting turns of the adjusting screws.

I guess there must be something lost for the cheaper price. Most hand splitters I've seen seem to be around 500-600 GBP, but getting one that has a list of around 450 GBP for a sale price of 280 GBP seems worth investigating.

Geoff