Michael, thanks for showing me this thread.
This gave me some very good insight on how others view the fillet knife market out there. I was surprised that makers are doing fillet knives for
about half of what I charge. A fillet knife like the one you have takes me about 14 hours to make if I am doing some others at the same time. I do my
own heat treating and that adds about an hour to the time. A sheath takes about 2 hours. Materials and grinding belts cost about $30. Figure all in
and I make less than $15/hr. The difference is probably in the finish and heat treating, or maybe I am just slow. As it turns out I get orders for and make about 30 per year which is just right for me. The feed back you have given me is excellent. The commercial guys are the ones who appreciate a
good tool. I made a 9 inch knife for a Commercial fisherman up in Alaska 5 years ago, he uses it every year on thousands of pounds of halibut and
salmon. I have made 20 more for his commercial friends based on his referrals. This is what makes it worthwhile. I think the heat treating is
more important than the steel when it comes to a fillet knife. That's why I recommended 154Cm to you. I doesn't make any sense to me to make a carbon steel fillet knife for salt water although it would cost a little less. I made a lot of fillet knives out of 440V in the past and frankly think that 154 is a better performer all around. 420V (S-90V) does hold a better edge but really adds to time for me to make one and ups the cost of an already pretty expensive fillet knife. A hunting knife is the best application for S-90V. Stellite or Talonite may make a pretty good knife. My concern would be does it have the springy feel necessary for a flexible knife? I grind my
blades very thin and would be worried about edge rippling under hard use. The material cost is also significant. I have been working with the new
S-30V and I think this will be my steel of choice for fillet knives. It has the potential to be better than 154 or even S-90V for this application.
Workability is very good and it looks like I won't have to charge any extra for the steel.
I am working with (EDIT: Name of GREAT knife company) right now on a fillet knife of my design. We are doing a 9 inch and a 7 inch currently. It will be Japanese made with MBS 26 steel. The blade flex, heat treating and feel based on the first prototype are very good. I am hoping for the first production run before this summer. It never is a for sure thing until all the fabrication costs and marketing stuff is final. This should put a very nice fillet knife in the price range a lot of fishermen will be willing to pay. I am very excited about it the whole project and keeping my fingers crossed.
The discussion on "fillet and release" or "catch and release" in an ongoing one. I'm not going to jump into the discussion except to say I kept about 50 very nice king salmon this year and canned, smoked and gave a lot of it away to appreciative friends. I like to use my own knives!!
Thanks again for the feed back and if you get out here sometime we will go catch and fillet some fish.
PHIL
Philip C. Wilson
Audrey A. Wilson
Seamount@bigplanet.com
P.O. Box 846, Mtn Ranch, Ca, 95246
North 38 17.074
West 120 32.819
When the Creator made all things, He first made the fishes in the Big Water
American Indian Legend