New kilt belt

[Tobus]

Yeah, a DIY splitter would be nice to have! Even if you had to buy the blades for it, it's not so bad if you can save on the splitter itself. We have a vintage one (probably from the 1940s, as is most of our equipment), but the problem is that they no longer make blades that fit it correctly. So switching out the blade is a long, arduous process of altering a new blade to bolt to the old splitter frame. I'd love to have a new splitter that accepts the new blades with no fuss, but Good Lord those things are expensive!

[frank_a]

If I can come up with something Tobus, I will share it. I had some ideas, but none panned out. I cut a lot of wood and metal up last night playing with those ideas! Basically I would like to be able to take a thin slice off the rough backs of my belts. It's not a big deal, just something I would like to do. Also, it would be helpful and more time efficient than skiving the ends of my belts. I think I can do this fairly well with the sticker scraper shown above, it will just take time. No way would I try that on the complete length of a kilt belt!

The cheapest splitter I've seen new is Tandy's High Tech for 200 bucks on ebay yesterday. It's not there today. I have to keep my head on my shoulders here too, and not go spending big bucks on stuff that is really only a passing interest. Then again, maybe if I coughed up the bucks, it would more firmly cement that interest...

I understand pulling a 3" wide, long piece of leather through a splitter takes some muscle too! The older I get, the less I have.

Frank

[Tobus]

I understand pulling a 3" wide, long piece of leather through a splitter takes some muscle too! The older I get, the less I have.

It's all a matter of keeping the blade sharp. I've pulled 4" to 6" wide leather through it for making cinches for western saddles, sometimes including latigo leather which is a bit tougher. Getting it started can be a pain, but once you've got enough to pull with, and if the blade is sharp, it's not as bad as you'd think.

[frank_a]

Yeah, I hear ya Tobus. What I plan on doing is keeping some jewelers rouge around to keep the edge sharpened.

Frank

[frank_a]

Thanks for the tips Tobus. I got my hand skiver in the mail today and really like it. I've tried different methods to do the same thing, and this works great. I've done a lot of body work, so close attention to stuff like this is 2nd nature. I want to make some changes with the keeper here, but other than dyeing, it's done for this weekend.

skived.JPG

[MNlad]

Having run into a few instances where I have to shave a piece of leather significantly wider that the skiver available, I run parallel cuts leaving about 1/8" to 1/4" in between. I then slice off the narrow strips of uncut leather, riding the flat of the knife in the skived areas as a guide. This has the advantage of having the same resistance across the whole face of the skiver for each pass, making it easier to keep it level, at least for me.

Great looking belts.

[oldhippie]

were could I get the wire ends for kilt belts?
I have leather to make a couple but need the wire end that the buckel hooks

[Downunder Kilt]

Artificer found a source for these in the UK. See his post, No18, in this thread:
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...90/index2.html

[oldhippie]

Artificer found a source for these in the UK. See his post, No18, in this thread:
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...90/index2.html

the bad thing is there minimum order requirement
and they do not take pay-pal payments

[Llama]

were could I get the wire ends for kilt belts?
I have leather to make a couple but need the wire end that the buckel hooks

I took the advice from this thread and made an end out of a nail. I wrapped it in leather to keep it from clanking around with my cheapy belt buckle.