Are all cheap strap cutters created equal?

[BriarandThorne]

Tandy, Weaver, Buckleguy, etc. all have the basic wooden strap cutter for sale. They all seem to be the exact same tool. But I recently subscribed to Nigel's secrets of the workshop series and he mentioned that the one labeled "strap cutter" was the only one worth a damn and that the others were crap. Can someone point me in the right direction for a basic, quality strap cutter?

[tsunkasapa]

I've had 2 0f the Tandy ones. One burned in the wildfire that wiped us out and the other is hanging on my pegboard right now. The first one was almost 25 years old. They work just fine. You can spend much more, but you won't GET much more.

[Matt S]

1 hour ago, BriarandThorne said:

Tandy, Weaver, Buckleguy, etc. all have the basic wooden strap cutter for sale. They all seem to be the exact same tool. But I recently subscribed to Nigel's secrets of the workshop series and he mentioned that the one labeled "strap cutter" was the only one worth a damn and that the others were crap. Can someone point me in the right direction for a basic, quality strap cutter?

Nigel may be referring to the ones produced in Stockton, California. 5 years ago they were double the price of the generic Far Eastern-made ones, and many times better. Unfortunately they seem to have been out of production for some time.

[Cumberland Highpower]

Didn't we just have this conversation a week ago?

[Spyros]

It's a couple of sticks with a blade... it really takes some effort to get it wrong.   

We said in the other thread a couple of things to look for, other than that they're all pretty much the same.

[Matt S]

13 minutes ago, Spyros said:

It's a couple of sticks with a blade... it really takes some effort to get it wrong.   

We said in the other thread a couple of things to look for, other than that they're all pretty much the same.

My experience with the cheaper ones is that the blade slot may be cut off-square, the hardware strips or doesn't turn smoothly, the scales can be "off", the parallel bars slip and the short grain next to the blade slot is prone to snapping.

[Spyros]

1 minute ago, Matt S said:

My experience with the cheaper ones is that the blade slot may be cut off-square, the hardware strips or doesn't turn smoothly, the scales can be "off", the parallel bars slip and the short grain next to the blade slot is prone to snapping.

yeah looks like someone made a serious effort to screw yours up LOL

[Matt S]

Just now, Spyros said:

yeah looks like someone made a serious effort to screw yours up LOL

Several of mine ;-)

[Spyros]

12 minutes ago, Matt S said:

Several of mine ;-)

Wtf man, where did you buy them from, some school woodworking project?  These are C&C cut, it really does take some doing to cut the slot off-square, or to not even look at the photos to use the same kind of screwy thingies that everyone else uses so things don't slide.  I mean these guys copy phones and things like that...

Maybe get the next one from someone who has a "No working while drunk" rule :D

Edited December 5, 2021 by Spyros

[Matt S]

3 minutes ago, Spyros said:

Wtf man, where did you buy them from, some school woodworking project?  These are C&C cut, it really does take some doing to cut the slot off-square, or to not even look at the photos to use the same kind of screwy thingies that everyone else uses so things don't slide.  I mean these guys copy phones and things like that...

Ebay mostly, though some were from UK leather dealers. They're pretty generic and probably all come off the same 1 or 2 production lines. I doubt that they're CNC machined, it's a pretty simple series of wood machining operations that's ideally suited to a few dedicated manual machines. Wouldn't take a lot for whatever tiny sawblade they use to cut the blade slot to be off for a batch -- bad setup, damaged/blunt blade, inattentive operator, whatever.

As to screws there's a world of difference between "works good" and "absolute cheapest we can get that looks pretty much the same in a low res photo".