Knives and some thoughts

[PaddyT]

just having a rethink about filleting and knives, was chatting to a well known Sydney charter operator a few months back and he is also an excellent fish processor and he only uses cheap,short blade paring/slicing type knives for filleting because it gives him better control over the blade. Now on another aside i bought a "havalon" knife as a new hunting knife recently and it is awesome to use- it uses removable scalpel blades and does an excellent job. So this morning i was filleting a few flatties and tried a very sharp, stiff GP kitchen knife ive had for years and lo and behold- it was a lot easier to control the blade and i filleted and deboned the flatties quicksmart! HAs anyone out there got further thoughts on this-im certainly going to persevere with the experiment. 

[Green Hornet]

I've always found a stiffer knife blade give's me better control when filleting and was using a general purpose knife until recently.

I found I was using just the curved, front 30 or 40mm of the blade only and went looking for something better.

I bought myself a Swibo 5.8406.16 (google it) boning knife and it has been a great investment. Although the blade is rated as flexible its really fairly stiff and I find the curved shape right through the blade gives me better control plus I use more of the edge.

For the record I don't catch large fish. Mainly salmon, tailor, blackfish etc.

[zmk1962]

My favourite filleting and deboning knife is an old Berkley Blade runner filleting knife... bought ages ago probably at K-mart end of season special ... it has a really stiff but narrow blade - the stiffness makes it easy to cut through bones and the narrow blade is a breeze to maneouver and control around the backbone bumps. Its the one with the green handle in the picture below. 

A few years back I did receive for my birthday a fancy deboning / filleting knife -- an F.Dick deboning knife - which sounds painful but thats the name (google it). This has a flexible blade of a much higher stainless standard than the Berkley BUT I just can't get used to the flex when filleting.  However, I have found that the flex is really good to get skin off shark fillets. It's the one with the blue handle.

Cheers Zoran

 

 

[rickmarlin62]

I use a few different types  swibo ate good bladeruunner with wide blade  scanpan boner  all good  wide or stiff blade far better than flimsy fillet type

[Rebel]

I have a Dexter ( USA ) about 8" long on the old scale, great knife. Also have two smaller Forysth blades for Bream etc.

[noelm]

There's a lot to knives, if you clean and fillet your fish at the boat ramp cleaning tables, unless you take your own board, your knife is going to be blunt in no time, concrete or stainless steel are not good for knives. I have said this before (I think) I am pretty hopeless at sharpening knives, I am a rub the blade on the concrete or a brick kind of guy, my wife however is an expert knife sharpener, and now and then I get to use her knives, and they cut like a surgeons scapel, quality knives are a dream to use, but have no place in a boat for hacking frozen bait or using as a screw driver, a cheap $5 knife is best for this task. I like a medium length knife, and not too flexible, but such a knife is useless on (say) a big Tuna, a nice long blade is my go to for this job, after being sharpened by my wife of course! so in a way, the knife has to suit the job, no one knife is the best, a Whiting fisherman will need a different knife to a game fisherman, the right tool for the job.

[Piss'n'Broke]

I recently got annoyed with wasting fish thru filleting fish with garbage knives 🔪. So I did about a research. Bought a heap of chef’s/butchers filleting knives. Primarily mundial knives & wostoff. They are a dream to work with. 
Only a week ago, filleted 3 kings, a flathead and a dory. Had them all done in a total of 5mins. My brother who’s a ex chef of 10+yrs said it was the the best & fastest filleting I’ve ever done without missing any  meat! So I’d say forget the filleting knives from tackle shops,,, buy professional knives they are worth it. 
Dan

[Welster]

Does anyone have any thoughts on these knives I saw on sale recently.   I felt like I really needed them 😂

[PaddyT]

yeah not a fan of very flexible blades.

[kingie chaser]

11 hours ago, Welster said:

Does anyone have any thoughts on these knives I saw on sale recently.   I felt like I really needed them 😂

Save you money!

 

If your after a set for home then Imo you can get some decent quality knife sets from places like Peters of Kensington OR Victoria's basement at a reasonable price for far superior quality & will last a lifetime!

https://www.petersofkensington.com.au/Public/Knife-Sets.aspx

 

Personally I like to have a choice of knives for different fish.

Flexy blade for me work better on smaller round fish where you go through the whole fish in one motion or where precision slicing is needed while a firmer long blade is better for things like whole Atlantic salmon, Kings, etc.

 

At the end of the day its whatever works for you in the type of fish your processing.

[frankS]

For home where I can look after them I use Dexter Russell Sani Safe 

For the boat I use whatever I have in the boat on any given day. I have dozens of knives and rarely use the same knife, cheap Jarvis Walker knives are as good as anything else.

Frank

[frankS]

12 hours ago, Welster said:

Does anyone have any thoughts on these knives I saw on sale recently.   I felt like I really needed them 😂

Wow I would like them just to hang on the wall of my work shed. I love Starrett products in my workshop.

Frank

[PaddyT]

I have 3 Dexters , they are perfectly ok knives, i guess my point is this-is the whole filleting knife thing a bit wrong- does a short blade, stiff knife give better filleting results than the traditional long blade. Ive never liked overly flexible blades but with hunting knives have gone to a blade that is only a couple of inches long and can butcher a deer over 100kgs no probs. Im going to play round this summer and see what i think.

[zmk1962]

I think the choice of length and stiffness comes down to what you feel most confident with, however one thing that’s critical  is to have the knife as sharp as possible. 

I will always reach for the sharper knife regardless of stiffness. 

Has been discussed before:

Cheers Z