Hello, I have a huge favor to ask. if anyone knows how to get ahold of Kyle Vallotton could you reach out to him and ask him to read this post or contact me?
My brother Fred finally got his grail knife, a Rainy/Kyle Vallotton Angel Wing. I can't imagine too many of these were made. It's a true work of art and he loves it as much as you can love a non-sentient being. But he took it apart and lost a few parts and now the knife is a very expensive manual opener. The knife won't close, the leaf spring won't stay in, and it won't fire. 100% his own fault and he's devastated. So that's why I would like to talk to Kyle and pay him to fix this knife. Fred will be eternally grateful to get this knife fixed no matter what the cost is. He also has one of Kyle's Predator knives which he thankfully hasn't tampered with.
That said, I'll run down the problems with pics as follows. After I reassembled the knife with the parts I had this is what it looks like:
As you can see the blade won't close. This is with the leaf spring installed. But the part that retains the spring within the body of the knife is missing.
This next pic shows the knife with the leaf spring removed and the knife can be closed and looks normal with 100% centering. Just perfection. But when the knife is open the leaf spring just falls out.
In this pic note the cross-shaped part that sits below the firing button. The tiny spring that sits in the circular cutout is missing.
Next is this crack in the mother of pearl presentation-side scale. That should be fixable with an epoxy suited to use with natural handle material but I would like to leave this to a professional.
Last pic, one of the T-6 torx screws used to fasten the rear bolster needs to be replaced. I could do this myself but I'd have to buy a bag of 100 and wouldn't know what to do with the rest of them.
Fred and I are avid collectors and proud to be members of the knife collecting community. Knifemaking and distribution is really a labor of love and I think it's great how we help each other out when we can. I really appreciate any help contacting Kyle. Alternatively, if there are any knife makers out there that has the parts to fix this knife I'm open to working directly with you as well.
Many thanks.
My brother Fred finally got his grail knife, a Rainy/Kyle Vallotton Angel Wing. I can't imagine too many of these were made. It's a true work of art and he loves it as much as you can love a non-sentient being. But he took it apart and lost a few parts and now the knife is a very expensive manual opener. The knife won't close, the leaf spring won't stay in, and it won't fire. 100% his own fault and he's devastated. So that's why I would like to talk to Kyle and pay him to fix this knife. Fred will be eternally grateful to get this knife fixed no matter what the cost is. He also has one of Kyle's Predator knives which he thankfully hasn't tampered with.
That said, I'll run down the problems with pics as follows. After I reassembled the knife with the parts I had this is what it looks like:
As you can see the blade won't close. This is with the leaf spring installed. But the part that retains the spring within the body of the knife is missing.
This next pic shows the knife with the leaf spring removed and the knife can be closed and looks normal with 100% centering. Just perfection. But when the knife is open the leaf spring just falls out.
In this pic note the cross-shaped part that sits below the firing button. The tiny spring that sits in the circular cutout is missing.
Next is this crack in the mother of pearl presentation-side scale. That should be fixable with an epoxy suited to use with natural handle material but I would like to leave this to a professional.
Last pic, one of the T-6 torx screws used to fasten the rear bolster needs to be replaced. I could do this myself but I'd have to buy a bag of 100 and wouldn't know what to do with the rest of them.
Fred and I are avid collectors and proud to be members of the knife collecting community. Knifemaking and distribution is really a labor of love and I think it's great how we help each other out when we can. I really appreciate any help contacting Kyle. Alternatively, if there are any knife makers out there that has the parts to fix this knife I'm open to working directly with you as well.
Many thanks.
