Antique Heavy Duty Leather Splitter

[Basillex]

You are verrrrry lucky to get one with a blade in that shape. A new blade alone would run you 2-400 bucks. Don't touch any tools to it, only a machinist who knows what they are doing should touch a blade like that. Before you decide what to do, I'd check and see if everything on it is metric or if you are doubly lucky and have found one made for the American market that has employed SAE threads, etc. This I say because cost of tools that you don't already have should be figured in for any DIY approach. Of particular importance will be getting that top (smooth) roller thoroughly and uniformally clean as it will be the one that will be in contact with leather surface and should be mirror bright.

How to properly smooth the top roller is indeed becoming a big question for me now. There are some scratches on it, and they need to come out. Should I dare and just go about sanding it myself with wet&dry? If yes, can I just do it by hand (literally - holding pieces in hand), use a holder to keep it flat or should I create some sort of a jig (like a semicircle of the same diameter like the roller)? I was thinking of starting with 120 and go up (I hope I don't have to go below that). The main concern is to not create any dents or make it "wavy" ...

[bruce johnson]

Very nice find! I don't know who made it, but the matching numbers on the parts indicates it is pretty old. They may have been building several at one time and individually fitting the parts for each particular one, then the parts were pooled for finishing before assembly. The matching numbers were stamped on the individual parts so they would mate up when assembled. This was common in many tools and bench machines I have from the mid to late 1800s. Most used numbers but have seen letters and punched "dots" in different patterns as well.

It looks like a pretty simple design and taking it down and cleaning/lubricating are probably about all you will need to do besides the blade. The milled feed roller looks great! Not much wear or damage to the grooves.

[bruce johnson]

For cleaning that smooth roller I would not start with 120. I would start with just plain steel wool to clean the surface grunge and see what I had. I think 120 is too coarse and may leave more grit pattern that you would then have to take out. I would start finer and maybe into the 300-400 range. You mostly want to take off burrs and sharp edges from the scratches. Once they are smooth, they won't mark your leather unless they are deep and wide. If you work lightly and evenly around the roller I think you can work them down by hand with out changing the profile enough to matter.

[oltoot]

Good start and hopefully finish. If that didn't do the trick, I would think about taking it to somebody who could put it in a lathe take just a whisker off uniformly. As you have observed, you dont want the surface to be wavy. As to the bottom roller be careful not to do anything that rounds the edges of the grooves. That pretty much limits you to liquids, steel wool and elbow grease.

[silverbullet]

You could polish the roller while the machine is together. Add a motor with a flat belt pulley and set it up to run the machine take strips of emery cloth wrap once around the shaft hold both ends and turn machine on and slowly move back and forth on shaft don't allow the polishing to stay on one area too long. Then use the next higher grit till all scratches are gone then wet polish with light oil this way the shaft will always stay true . When done it will shine like Chrome after you get the finish your happy with wash the shady with a rag wet with either or a carburetor cleaner to get the oil off , waxing will help protect from rust and shouldn't hurt the leather after all we use waxes in finishing , Gary