Steel for filet knives

WaltE99

WaltE99

Fickle Bastard Blades
Joined
Oct 5, 2015
Messages
179
I am looking into doing some filet knives and looking for some advice from anyone who has experience with them. I live near the Atlantic coast and a lot of my potential customers fish in salt water so stainless is a must.
  • What steel do you use?
  • What thickness? (Depends on the desired flexibility/stiffness, I know. I plan on beginning with smaller, more flexible blades.)
  • Where do you get it? I ask this because I'm having trouble finding any stainless less than .110".
Thanks everyone!
 
I haven’t done many fillet knives, 2 so far. But I’ve used Aeb-l for mine, I think thickness was around .040 or something like that, run at 58-59 Rc. Results have been good so far! I’m gonna order some more steel, and build a few more. I get my steel from alpha knife supply.
 
My personal feeling is AEB-L, but it's a bit harder to find. AKS has AEB-L in .100" which would work for long blades for large fish. For really small blades the .040" might be ok, but I only use it for 3" paring knives.
https://www.alphaknifesupply.com/shop/aeb-l-stainless-steel

For smaller fish like panfish or trout I'd like .060" or so. The smaller flexible blades for panfish I'd think .060" would be great. The .060" are only in 440C but I'd think it would make a GREAT fillet knife.
440C would work good from https://www.alphaknifesupply.com/shop/440c-stainless-steel

rodriguez beat me to the post. Since he's used .040" for fillet knives I'm sure it will work good. I agree, my preference is AEB-L for SS blades. The thin stuff will need to be ground post HT. Profile, HT, then grind.
 
Thanks guys! I was looking at NJ Steel Baron and I think the thinnest they had in any stainless is .110(maybe .094 but I don't remember where I saw that. Will check AKS, they just seemed higher on the little bit thicker stuff I was going to use for Chef's knives.
 
New Jersey Steel Barron does have good prices when you're ordering a few hundred dollars of steel to absorb the shipping cost. For ordering the small amounts I usually order it seems AKS will be a good bit less expensive than any other place I've found. I think you're right, .110" is the thinnest the Barron has - just checked while posting .
 
I haven’t made many knives yet, but have done 4 fillet knives from 1/16” CPM 154 rc 61-62. I absolutely love mine.
 
I use a lot of AEB-L. I'd sure run it higher than 58-59 RC. 62-63 RC will give you great edge holding ability and does not affect flexibility at all like is commonly thought. I have made several filet knives for charter boat captains that probably use em harder than most folks ever will. Results have been great. They order more knives. I also make a Skivver Knife designed and used daily by our own Paul Long, (sheathmaker here on BF). Very similar characteristics to a filet knife, just used in leather work. These are at 63 RC too, ht by Peters.

HA11i9J.jpg


ucERP7c.jpg
 
Ken H> said:
New Jersey Steel Barron does have good prices when you're ordering a few hundred dollars of steel to absorb the shipping cost. For ordering the small amounts I usually order it seems AKS will be a good bit less expensive than any other place I've found. I think you're right, .110" is the thinnest the Barron has - just checked while posting .
Click to expand...
Yes, I have found their (NJSB) shipping to be high...at least compared to Pop's. Thanks for the heads-up. I usually buy in small amounts, as well and checked some comparable items and AKS was a bit less if I'm looking correctly.
 
WaltE99 said:
I just double checked and .110 is the smallest shown in the drop down list. Maybe they carry .070 and are just currently out of stock. Thanks
Click to expand...

It isn't always ordered by size correctly in their drop downs; the .070 is nestled between .130 and .165. I'll be heat treating some AEB-L in .070" thickness to make some 8" filet knives today. Planning on keeping them at 61-62 RC. Good luck!
 
If corrosion resistance is a top priority you could also consider Vanax or Z-FiNit. Both are Nitrogen stainless steels with excellent corrosion resistance. AKS has both but the thinnest Vanax is 0.132". The Z-FiNit is available in 0.06"
 
Horsewright said:
I use a lot of AEB-L. I'd sure run it higher than 58-59 RC. 62-63 RC will give you great edge holding ability and does not affect flexibility at all like is commonly thought. I have made several filet knives for charter boat captains that probably use em harder than most folks ever will. Results have been great. They order more knives. I also make a Skivver Knife designed and used daily by our own Paul Long, (sheathmaker here on BF). Very similar characteristics to a filet knife, just used in leather work. These are at 63 RC too, ht by Peters.

HA11i9J.jpg


ucERP7c.jpg
Click to expand...

I copied that design. It works great. :thumbsup::cool:
 
skillgannon said:
I have some from them. I just checked the drop down. It's in stock.
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Destructabot said:
It isn't always ordered by size correctly in their drop downs; the .070 is nestled between .130 and .165. I'll be heat treating some AEB-L in .070" thickness to make some 8" filet knives today. Planning on keeping them at 61-62 RC. Good luck!
Click to expand...

You are correct! I stand corrected. What an odd place to put the .070, however. Every other vendor goes from thinnest to thickest.

Have you tried the .040" on a smaller, more flexible filet blade? (I assume that you mean that 8" is the blade length and not OAL.)
 
skillgannon said:
NJSB has .70 AEB-L.
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.070" is what I'd consider the perfect thickness for a fillet knife. You might call them, sometimes they have stuff "in the back".

edit: just looked and the .070" is down in the mix - as said, odd place to put it.
 
Ken H> said:
.070" is what I'd consider the perfect thickness for a fillet knife. You might call them, sometimes they have stuff "in the back".

edit: just looked and the .070" is down in the mix - as said, odd place to put it.
Click to expand...

How about .040 for a shorter blade where flexibility is desired?
 
WaltE99 said:
You are correct! I stand corrected. What an odd place to put the .070, however. Every other vendor goes from thinnest to thickest.

Have you tried the .040" on a smaller, more flexible filet blade? (I assume that you mean that 8" is the blade length and not OAL.)
Click to expand...

I haven't tried anything thinner than 1/16", but I'm on the coast up near the Northern tip of California and it's mostly larger fish. And yes, 8" blade length.
 
Not sure if anyone else noticed, but NJSB shipping is now estimated on the website and it was $10 cheaper for me the other day than it was last time I ordered from them.
 
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