Splitting Band Knife

A splitting band knife is a power tool that divides a material to a set thickness using a continuous loop blade running like a band saw, with the material fed across a flat table beneath the blade. It is used most prominently in leatherworking and tanning, where it splits a hide or piece of leather through its thickness to separate the smooth top grain from the looser split layer beneath, and the same design is also used to slice rubber, foam, cork, and paper, and in parts of shoe manufacturing. Later machines added a powered grinding attachment that sharpens the blade continuously during use, allowing splits accurate to within about 0.2 millimeters. The idea dates back to an 1808 British patent by W. Newberry for machinery to split skins, and a more complete bandknife design followed from an 1854 American patent by Flanders and Marden; industrial production of the blades themselves began in 1912, when Rudolf Alber founded the company that still makes them today.