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howlback

Used a band knife splitter for the first time today

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Holy cow! What an amazing machine. I had some veg tan with a furry split side and that thing gave it a fresh shave. It’s a shame they are so expensive. To me it really improved the overall look after evening my blanks out to a uniform thickness. We’ll see how the final products turn out but I’m tempted to pursue one in the future, if they exist for under 10k. The guys said the one I used cost them over 30k new.

Edited by howlback

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3 hours ago, howlback said:

Holy cow! What an amazing machine. I had some veg tan with a furry split side and that thing gave it a fresh shave. It’s a shame they are so expensive. To me it really improved the overall look after evening my blanks out to a uniform thickness. We’ll see how the final products turn out but I’m tempted to pursue one in the future, if they exist for under 10k. The guys said the one I used cost them over 30k new.

I've been using a couple of band knife splitters for many years and I doubt I could do my business without at least one. Keep in mind that they can pay for themselves fairly quickly if you offer the splitting service to others as well. My main belt competitor in Australia I have been splitting their belt backing and cutting the strips as well for many years now and I think I get more profit from that than making my own belts. They get around 1000 strips every 2 or 3 months and that normally takes me a couple of week ends to get done. Something to think about.

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They a fantastic pieces of kit to use, though I understand the maintenance is a bit in-depth.

I find them from time to time on online auction sites. A 12" capacity Sagitta finished at £250 yesterday, only 2 hours' drive from me, which is a stupid low price even though it needed some repairs. However I had to admit to myself that I don't have the workshop space, the forklift access to move the 350KG lump, or an adequate electric supply to run the thing. One day...

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We have an early Fortuna from the 1950s and we could not work in our shop without it. It allows us to purchase 12 -14 oz leather what we usually use for the bulk of our products.. We then are able to thin everything else as we need.. I recently purchased another Fortuna UA band splitter from Ebay but it sadly arrived in pieces 

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Can you give us a few more details ? I am interested .. 

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