How To Polishing the Vallotton grind

vanadium

vanadium

Joined
Apr 5, 2003
Messages
807
I love my Vallotton but I always find the primary grind to be a bit 'grey' or 'dirty' looking. Thinking about polishing it up using a strop and some ultrafine compound. Anyone tried anything like this? Anyone else find their Vallotton blade finish a bit drab?
 
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Sounds reasonable. But is this a good idea? Will a superfine polish over coarse grind lines look nice? Or accomplish anything, for that matter?
 
the surface of your blade looks like this. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

When you use a fine compound, all you're doing is polishing the peaks. You may see improvement in shine but it will require an abundance of elbow grease. You will not however end up with a polished surface like a Slysz Bowie. For that you'd need to work your way through a series of decreasing grits.
 
silverds said:
the surface of your blade looks like this. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

When you use a fine compound, all you're doing is polishing the peaks. You may see improvement in shine but it will require an abundance of elbow grease. You will not however end up with a polished surface like a Slysz Bowie. For that you'd need to work your way through a series of decreasing grits.
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I think that you would need to use other steps to polish it first. Going straight to ultrafine might not he abrasive enough for the first step.

Maybe just take it to a buffing wheel?
 
Lapedog said:
I think that you would need to use other steps to polish it first. Going straight to ultrafine might not he abrasive enough for the first step.

Maybe just take it to a buffing wheel?
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If he's just looking for a little more gleam, the compound should be sufficient to achieve that but I agree a buffing wheel would be better way to do it than by hand. If he's doing it by hand I wouldn't recommend too coarse a compound because he may end up with micro-scratches that cross the grain of the factory grind. A buffing wheel, however will spin in the same direction as the factory grind so coarser compound could be used.
 
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Here you go.....You can easily see the increase the shine. I just did this, took me about 5 min to strop and a few more to take pictures and upload. This is easier on a flat or convex grind. I could not have done this so quickly on a hollow grind. This is S90V the Valotton uses S30V which should be easier to polish.

220 Grit Satin no polish.
39049829492_7e4826696b_k.jpg


220 Grit Satin after about 30 or so passes on a strop with black compound.

27302759869_3f6182da57_k.jpg
 
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silverds said:
220 Grit Satin after about 30 or so passes on a strop with black compound.
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That's nice! Looks like what I'm hoping to get. Did you try to run the strop in the direction of the existing grind lines? Or was that not critical? Thanks all.
 
vanadium said:
That's nice! Looks like what I'm hoping to get. Did you try to run the strop in the direction of the existing grind lines? Or was that not critical? Thanks all.
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I stropped in the same direction as the grind. I wouldn't cross the grind with the black compound, I have a hunch it might scratch.
 
Alright, I'm gonna try this, with a leather strop wrapped around something cylindrical. Probably tomorrow evening if things work out. Tanto tip might be a bit of a challenge. Maybe I'll mask it off and do it separately. Will report back. Thanks again :thumbsup:
 
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