Fillet Knives-An Unpopular Opinion?

Runs With Scissors

Runs With Scissors

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Dec 3, 2000
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I'm a big fan of a quality knife. I've sported many nice Microtech, Benchmade, Spyderco, etc. I enjoy a good quality knife for EDC, camping, etc. But...when it comes to filleting fish, I'm under the opinion that I'll use most anything off the shelf. of the local department store. In choosing an inexpensive fillet knife, I've come to put way more emphasis into the handle than the blade. It could be that I'm just...not highly discriminating, but when taking apart a couple hundred pounds of halibut or 150 salmon, I just can't tell much difference between a blade composed of S30V and whatever steel I got out of the red tag bargain bin. It might be like why the local butcher uses Dexter and Victorinox instead of a handbuilt custom knife set? Additionally, the blades are often used for cutting bait, "gilling" fish, etc. It's inevitable that a kid or someone inexperienced leaves a knife on the gunwale for "Just a second", a wave hits the boat and it goes into the drink.

Particularly during dipnetting season, we will take everyone from the boat, which is 3 to 6 people, and start filleting. I'm usually tasked with carrying fish and fillets back and forth, as well as maintaining blades on my Sharpmaker. Probly cause I'm good at carrying heavy stuff but bad at filleting... To my satisfaction, we've had people with us that thought this method was hokey at first, but then had a complete change of heart after thirty minutes or so. Not another person that I have fished with is a knife geek like I am. On my last fishing trip I commented that my Spyderco Matriarch did pretty great for gilling a couple salmon. My brother pointed out that his $2 bait knife did the same thing. Sadly, he was not wrong.

How do y'all feel about your fish processing tools? Do you find gains in the higher end custom fillet knives? Am I way off course in some way? I'd be curious to hear others opinions. Fishing season is near and I'm gunna be sharpening a five gallon bucket of fillet knives in preparation for it.
 
I have a custom fillet knife that I love, but for knocking out massive amounts like the OP, having a bucket full of blades ready to go and not worrying about them sounds smart.
 
I am not a fisherman nor a fillet knife expert. I would love to see your opinion on one of Phil Wilson's fillet knives if you could ever get your hands on one. Phil's choice of steel and heat treat is off the charts good for hunting knives, it would be interesting to see an informed opinion on his fillet knives.

BTW RWS, it's nice to see you here again, seems like you've been gone for a while.
 
In my limited experience, the size of the fillet knife in relation to the size of the fish is important.

I just can’t filet a pan fish with the same knife I would use on a halibut.

For small knives I like the Martini Rapala knives, for large I like the Dexter sani safe knives, cheap and easy to keep clean.

The Dexter Russel serated net knives far out perform their price point. Great bait, gill, cardboard, rope, net etc knife.
 
I like them a lot unfortunately I don’t fish enough to get a custom one yet. But one day
 
I've had the same Marttiini filet knife for over 40 years, it's wicked sharp and easy to resharpen.
I haven't used it on fish in a long time, but it's my dedicated chicken fileting knife.
 
I got a Dexter Russell sanisafe set in school back in 2002.

Been using it ever since. Never needed anything else.

Would it be super cool to have a custom filet knife? Sure!

Opinel makes some cool looking blades too that I might actually grab for a more portable one. You know anything from opinel is going to fillet like a champ.
 
Man, pretty much anything you can buy has cheaper and more expensive examples that will do the same thing. How much is it worth for you to feel like you have the most awesome one?

I have been eyeing the North Arms Kermode for a while and just ordered one thanks to this thread.
 
I have had the same Chicago Cutlery filet knife for at least 30 yrs. Just today I was finishing up a different filet knife project when I thought, maybe I should rehandle this old knife. That said I have a couple of others as well. "Horses for Courses" as they say.
 
One of the best fillet knives you can buy is an angled 6” semi flex boning knives by any reputable knife manufacturer. I have victorinox and F.dick. Both are excellent for processing fish. I used to have some leech lake fillet knives they were good too. You’re probably over thinking it to be honest. Either way I’m guessing the fish won’t know the difference
 
sodak said:
I am not a fisherman nor a fillet knife expert. I would love to see your opinion on one of Phil Wilson's fillet knives if you could ever get your hands on one. Phil's choice of steel and heat treat is off the charts good for hunting knives, it would be interesting to see an informed opinion on his fillet knives.

BTW RWS, it's nice to see you here again, seems like you've been gone for a while.
Click to expand...

I don't think I'm much of an expert in fillet knives or fishing either, or...heck...much of anything for that matter...lol

I looked up Phil Wilson's fillet knives. It sure looks like he sure has the right idea! I like that he's willing to tailor the blade stiffness. I actually prefer more mild flex in my fillet knives. Most folks I know like 'em a bit more bendy than I do. Heck, I once got some nice salmon fillets using a Benchmade Onslaught, but the rest of the crew threatened to keel haul me if I continued my sacrilege. I won't lie that I am intrigued. by some of the customs. They've just...never worked out for me, unless I include one made with my own ten thumbs. If I ever find one at a good enough price to not get beat up on the likely re-sale I'd certainly give it a go. Or really....any custom fillet knife. After all, I don't speak from a deep well of conviction, but a rather shallow well of humble experiences...thus far.

In a moment of reflection, it occurs to me the irony that in my daily life I carry a mad array of S110V, Magnacut,S35,S30,S45, etc. Then I put hundreds of pounds of food in the freezer using ugly, plastic handled, unimpressive grade steel knives. If it's not a department store knife for fishing it's a Mora for hunting.

Thanks for the kind words and the welcome. I actually remember a few of y'all good folks that make this a pretty great place to come back to.
 
Among other knives, I've got these 4 cheap fish filet knives of various shapes & sizes that I bought from Bass Pro that work on fish of all sizes:

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The one at the top is also very useful for deboning pork shoulders & other cuts of meat.

I have no idea what kind of steel was used to make the blades but they don't dull too quickly, are easy to sharpen & they do the work. 🤷‍♂️
 
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When I'm going to be fileting I take a handful of Rapala's of various sizes. I use them because I've had them since I was a kid and they get the job done.
Honestly, that was one of the main reasons I got into sharpening. Before my BESS tester I would work on them till they would push cut a cigarette paper. Now days they are all under 100 or close.
As long as they are razor sharp and fit the task at hand, and my hand, they get the job done. If one starts to get dull, I toss it to the side and pick up another.
I lust over nicer ones occasionally but probably will never spring for one. They would just end up smelling like fish.
Just for the record, I'm a hard core fisherman spending most of my time chasing Walleye. I've cleaned a few, albeit not as many as the OP, but I do OK.
 
I had a bit of a fishing craze for a while. I didn’t have a boat but was fortunate in that I lived by the ocean so I’d fished off piers pretty much every weekend.

I had a regular Swiss Army knife that I used for cutting bait, line, and filleting fish. It was a pain to clean but I figured it was cheap enough I could easily replace it if it went overboard, the screwdrivers were nice for fixing and adjusting gear. The scissors came in handy and SAKs are damn near rust proof. I think I also kept a fixed blade in my tackle box. I think it was an inexpensive wood handle rapala. It was nice for processing larger fish but it didn’t work as well as the SAK as a general utility knife.
 
I think you can get away with cheaper fillet knives because they are thin and most fish are soft so they don’t need to be super steel. I use mostly Rapala, Spyderco and dexter. I use them for certain tasks when processing deer as well.

IMG_1772.jpeg
 
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