Need Help Fillet Knife Sharpening

J

jd442

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Jul 16, 2003
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I need some help with sharpening a fillet knife. I frequently go fishing and when its time to clean the catch my fillet knife go dull quickly. I have used a sharpening steel, cheap ceramic stick, a handheld tool with v shaped carbide blades that you drag along the knife. I am looking for something that will sharpen the knives relatively quickly. I have read some posts where people talk about the spyd 204 sharpmaker and other stone blocks. Any recommendations would be appreciated (name, type, model and best place to buy the item. I was thinking about the sharpmaker but it seems it takes some time to set up and use (i could be wrong) or a eze-lap sharpening steel.

Thanks in Advance
jd:confused: :confused:
 
jd - the Sharpmaker is very easy to set up and use. The video which comes with it shows sharpening a fillet knife. Although I've not used it to sharpen a fillet knife myself it's put an excellent edge on every knife I've tried. I'd recommend giving it a go.
Phil
 
Any other recommendations? What is the exact model of the Sharpmaker and where is the best place to buy it? Also do you need to buy separate rods if the knife is really dull or the whole kit contains everything you need?


Thanks for the help
jd
 
The tools you mentioned tend to produce weak edges so it is no surprise that the knives might go blunt fast.

You can use a Sharpmaker on a fillet knife, but if the knife is very tapered, and thus flexible, it can be awkward. If the knife is really blunt it will also take a long time.

I would recommend cutting the edge to shape with a coarse stone, and then refining it with a finer one. You are not trying to get the eddge actually sharp here, just get the bevels to meet and get the angle down to below the Sharpmaker setting. Sharpen at 10-15 degrees per side depending on how heavy the fish bones you intent to cut through.

Once this is done you can sharpen the edge on a Sharpmaker, or any other v-rod or "cat's eye" system, which you can find fairly cheap, about $15 or so depending on the exact model. You can find them all over the place.

-Cliff
 
Flexible fillet knives are a real pain in the neck to sharpen. A have a large Boker flexible fillet that I use for walleye, and have had no luck sharpening it with my SharpMaker. The blade just flexes too easily. I finally ended up stropping the Boker with 800 grit wet/dry paper, with the wet/dry paper sitting on a smooth piece of glass.
 
Yes, a rather cumbersome solution is to stiffen the blade with a piece of wood or similar pinched along the side. In general though you are much better off working with benchstones or similar, the wider the better.

-Cliff
 
So the Sharpmaker would not be a good choice for a fillet knife? What about what someone mentioned about stiffening the blade up with wood? The stones you guys recommend where can I get them (type, brand, model best prices)?
 
Most of the filleting I do is usually done on stripers, fluke, weakfish. I usually do not cut through any thick bones while filleting. Trying to cut through scales on stripers dulls my knives. I have some fillet knives that are flexible and others which are stiffer. Is the sharpmaker good to use on kitchen knives? I just wondering what to buy which would be good to use on fillet knives and kitchen knived if I needed to sharpen them. Also, I keep reading about the Edge Pro would this be a better alternative to the sharpmaker.

Thanks
Jd
 
The Sharpmaker works well on kitchen knives *BUT* most kitchen knives come with fairly heavy edge angles. This angle has to be reduced before the Sharpmaker will be effective. This is best done with a coarse hone, get the angle down to 10-15 degrees per side and then the Sharpmaker (or any other v-rod system) will do fine.

-Cliff
 
Fillet knives definitely aren't the easiest to sharpen, I can see your problem here for sure. The sharpmaker will work, but due the flexibility of the blade it'll be difficult. An Edge-Pro would be the best and easiest option since the blade is supported so flexibility wouldn't be an issue. A Lansky would work as well. The Edge Pro is expensive but worth it, I haven't regretted buying mine for a second. One suggestion if you want to try it freehand, you can use on hand to hold the handle and the other to hold the blade to keep it from flexing so much. If you have a stone with a good non-slip base or a vise to hold the stone in this could work very well. Good luck and be sure to let us know how it goes.
 
What is a good hone or coarse stone. Where can I get it (best price). what would be the name brand, model, grit etc.

Thanks
jd
 
Just buy a waterstone from Lee Valley, they are cheap. I would get a combination one 250/1000, for ~18 US. You can buy similar ones in most hardware stores. You can find decent v-rod or "cat's eye" setups almost anywhere.

-Cliff
 
I got mine at ACE hardware; they don't need to be expensive to do the job. Waterstones cut a lot faster though; the Edge-Pro uses waterstones and the coarse stone removes metal fast. You can even use coarse silicon carbide sandpaper glued to a wood or plastic backing; just stroke with the edge trailing instead of forward. You can get sandpaper in the automotive section of Wal-Mart or a hardware store.
 
Who makes the edge-pro and where can you get it? I will check for waterstones at a hardware store near me.

Thanks
jd
 
I use a DMT Diafold medium/fine when I sharpen my filet knives. The medium removes enough metal to sharpen quickly, but not so much that you end up removing a large amount of metal in a short time. If you don't mind me asking, what brand of filet knife are you using?

Chris
 
Whoops, sorry, I may have been misleading. I got a general purpose sharpening stone from the hardware store, I doubt you can find waterstones at ACE. You can find info on the Edge Pro here. They are very pricey, the Apex model with a stone upgrade kit is about $160. That's what I have and as I said I love it, but you have to be a big knut to want to shell out that kind of money. I'm as knutty as they come so money was no object :cool: .
 
I am at a loss as to why a flexible blade should be a problem to sharpen with a Sharpmaker (or any other V-rod system). The narrowness of the honing contact zone with a rod system means that you do not have to press the blade against the hone with much force to achieve a high pressure (force/area). Using the edges of the Sharpmaker rods gives extremely high contact pressure with trivial lateral force against the blade. To my mind this is an ideal system for use with a flexible blade. I have used it on several filet knives as well as much more flexible kitchen knives with no problem.

The common problems that I see with fillet knives are somewhat obtuse bevels (due to narrow blades with short bevels) and rather soft alloys that dull pretty rapidly. The problem with the obtuse bevels and rapid wear is that you may need to really reprofile the blade fairly often. The Sharpmaker abrasive rods just aren't designed to remove a lot of material in a hurry. The ideal (but expensive solution) is to get a set of diamond grit sharpmaker rods for reprofiling. I typically reprofile with a belt sander then maintain my edge with a Sharpmaker.

If you want a single-tool solution that fits in a tackle box I would get something like an Ultimate Edge Diamond Steel. I would get one as long as would fit in my tackle box. I've got a 12" one that I like, but they come in various different lengths. These are eliptical in cross section and provide pretty high pressure with modest honing force. The diamond will remove material fast enough to help you keep up with the task. A 10 inch model costs about $24.00 from Top of Texas Knives:
http://www.toptexknives.com/sharptab.htm
 
Extremefishin00,

Chris, I have a couple of fillet knives the ones I use mostly are my Dexter Russell and Forschner fillet knives. I have a couple of Rapala fillet knives but I don't use them often.

Does anyone sell used Apex Edge_pro? I am interested in this item but it seems kind of pricey!
 
Jeff, it depends on the knife. I have seen them with heavy distal taper on thin stock that bends very readily. It is difficult to hone on rods because they warp so readily against the rod. Some fillet knives are not like this at all of course, it is only the long ones which are designed to be very flexible.

-Cliff
 
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