Advice about sharpening Vallotton Sub-Hilt

A

ankle.brambledom

Joined
May 26, 2012
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5
A friend of mine recently gave me a Spyderco Vallotton, as he knows I have a thing for Spyderco blades.

Says he loved the knife, thinks it a handsome blade, but couldn't get an edge on it. Said it came from the factory with a very wide bevel and a more or less dull edge. He used a Smith sharper to turn the wide bevel into a shoulder and borrowed my Spyderco Sharpmaker to try to put a 30 degree inclusive edge on it. He did an okay job but couldn't get a satisfactory edge on the SPM S30V. He's given up on the knife and just up and gave it to me.

Problem is he scratched the blade in places (a few times all the way up the hollow grind) and he tried unsuccessfully (thank goodness) to grind the convex curve (appleseed grind?) out of the tanto tip.

I went to work on it with the Sharpmaker but am unfamiliar with the smp s30v. It *is* tough to put an edge on, especially after the crazy job my buddy did.

I love the knife (its ergos are great, the build construction is truly remarkable, and it is handsome) but it's not really something that falls within my use parameters. I'm thinking of maybe selling the knife for around a $100 bucks or something if I can't get an edge on it but really want to give the sharpening one last good shot before I decide to do that. So I'd like some advice about how to get an edge on this steel. I'm finding this steel really obdurate. Would be grateful for any advice. I'm willing to put in a good few hard, patient hours with the Sharpmaker, but thought I'd query the forum hoping you might have experience with, and some advice regarding, this new steel.

Thanks for any help you might be able to give.
 
I sould stick with trying to use the sharpmaker and use the sharpie method. black out the edge bevel with a sharpie and sharpen it on the stones paying close attention to your stroke angle. You 'll know if you are getting it right because the sharpie will rub off where it's making contact with the stone, so try and maintain your angle to get the edge and not the shoulders of the bevel.

The scratches on the blade will be harder to remove, and may require a good bit of time with some progressively fine grits of sandpaper with smooth, even passes.

I'm sure there will be takers for $100 if you decide to sell it. I call dibs! :)
 
You could also send it back to Spyderco for some factory TLC. Sharpmaker is slow if your friend really did a number on the blade. Sharpie trick is essential to give you feedback if you elect to fix it yourself.
 
Thanks, Bill and Gooeytek. I just put in two hours with a sharpie, strong lighting, a magnifier, and the Sharpmaker. Never got passed the gray rods. It has an edge now, but not one I'm satisfied with. Not sure what it is. It's tough steel, just feels extremely hard and fine grained. Going to take Gooeytek up on his offer to buy it. The more strokes I made, the more I realized I just won't be using this blade -- although it's a good looking knife. :)
 
I read several comments on forums that Vallotton come with obtuse angle on the edge. To my understanding, the knife wasn't design to be a slicer. I had the same issued with mu Navaja. If you are not in rush, the best thing you can do is to send to Spyderco and ask to reprofile to 30 degrees inclusive. I have very coarse stones up to 120 grit, still it took me a while to reprofile Navaja. Sharpmeke's medium are not really good tool for this job. Corners are getting loaded very fast. 50 may be 70 strokes and they stop removing steel, so you need to wash them, than dry. Many years ago I reprofiled Native, using just medium. It took very long time, but reprofiling Native is pieces of cake to compare with Vallotton.
Good luck
 
Without 120 grit on the Edge pro ure not going anywhere...at least im my experience...
 
Yes it comes with an obtuse edge. I would use a DMT diamond stone or Spyderco diamond rod. The medium rod doesn't remove enough material in my experience. I use the medium rods after raising a burr with something more coarse.
 
Thanks, all, for the advice. The knife is making its way to Gooeytek as I write, so raising a good edge on it now falls to him.

If I ever buy a SPM S30V blade, or if another one makes its way to me, I'll be sure to have the DMT stone or the Spyderco diamond rod on hand.
 
Hey guys, i stumbled upon this thread and joined just to throw my 2 cents in. The edge bevel on the Vallotton is (as best as i could figure on my Edge Pro) around 60 degrees inclusive. I don't believe you can even sharpen it on a Sharpmaker unless you get creative, since the 40 degree slot will just hit the shoulder, especially up at the tip. When i first sharpened mine, i spent a good long while reprofiling the entire bevel down to 30 inclusive, including the convex tip which took so much work that it destroyed my 120 Edge Pro stone...it was dipped so bad that it was beyond flattening. It does make the tip a bit of a pain to get sharp unless you use a micro bevel since the bevel is so wide, and it does have a slight convex to it, but it makes the rest of the knife much easier to sharpen and maintain, and for what it's worth it does slice pretty decent for how thick the spine is.

DSC01585.jpg

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I used the wicked edge on it and reprofiled it to about ~38° inclusive. It got extremely sharp, but I needed something else to touch up the tip. I sent it out to get pimped a few weeks ago and will undoubtedly post pics when I get it back :)
 
gooeytek said:
I used the wicked edge on it and reprofiled it to about ~38° inclusive. It got extremely sharp, but I needed something else to touch up the tip. I sent it out to get pimped a few weeks ago and will undoubtedly post pics when I get it back :)
Click to expand...

How so? I've seen pics of one that was done in G10. The guy did away with the bolsters completely (which i can't say i'm a fan of) and used tan G10. It was pretty cool though. I really like the polished black G10 but i could see some natural micarta too.
 
The scales will stay the same, I really like the polished G10. The blade might be polished, satin or stone washed, don't really know, but all I cared about is that it has a properly done convex tip and rounded spine, and might drop the point a little.
 
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