Best Filet Knife? Should I go custom? Why?

Guys I never sold a sebenza for $525, and the ATCF was sold at the show two years ago. No I dont use the filet knife to only cut bait, we do lots of shark fishing on the smaller boat and we use bluefish fillets quite often. These filets get torn up by blues in the slick quite often.

I am not a paid sportfisherman either bro. I am a fargin mate. All the info is right here guys I dont understand how you can misquote someone when all you have to do is scroll down for the info. That e-mail was very informative, thanks for posting it.

Also I am not the only one who views custom filet knives as being sort of a waste of excess money. The men I work for, and many of the Captains and boat owners I have met and worked with have the same views. Maybe it is becuase they aren't the ones doing all the cutting, or maybe they are right. Now figure that a 62' merit costs around 3 Million dollars new. The man I currently work for owns a large insurance company and has ridiculous houses in Swords Creek-Virginia, Garden City NY, and East Quogue NY. He is a Multi-Millionaire and he won't put up $300 for a filet knife cause it just being used to cut-fish. He has all Henkels stuff in his kitchen, but a custom filet knife in his eyes is a waste of money. I grew up with this mans son and know his values and am somewhat friends with him. These are not only my views I speak of here. I am not going to post on this thread again unless another one of you guys picks apart my writings like you are dissecting a fish.
Just a knife boys. Thanks for the time.

JC
 
For a great custom filet knife at a very reasonable price, get in touch with Howard Hill of Persuader Knives. He is in Polson, Montana. Your browser should find his website under Persuader Knives.
Greg
 
During the summer months I work on a charter boat as the first mate. Most of my money comes from the tips I get from out customers. I currently use one of the Cold Steel filet knives, the 9" model. I use that knife to clean black drum, croaker, trout, flounder, pretty much any fish that can be filleted. I figure that it was used to filet a few thousand fish this past spring and summer. It holds a great edge, quickly takes a very sharp edge, but rusts if you look at it wrong. Does it do everything I ask of it? Of course. It is the best of the production filet knives that I've used over the past few years. But that's the thing, I figure that I have spent about $400 buying filet knives that have broken, rusted out, or got lost. That's about the same amount I would have paid for one of Phil Wilson's knives, but I doubt it would have rusted out, or snapped in two, or have the handle rot off..etc. Do I want one? Very much so. Can I afford it right now? Sadly no. Will I order one when I can afford it? Most definitely. So, if you can afford it now, go ahead and get it. If not, then continue using the production models. Like you said, your boss wouldn't buy one, but he isn't the one doing all the cutting.

As far as keeping rust off a DMT, I used a Eze Lap diamond Rod for a couple of year, I just sprayed WD-40 on it after use, and then put it away. Just wipe the DMT with a rag, spritz it with some WD-40 and it should be fine. If you do that however, I would use a separate knife and stone for fileting fish that will be eaten as the WD-40 may cause the fish to taste funny.

(chris)
 
I gave Phil a call and ordered a 9" knife. Phil is having good luck with S30V, so I decided to go with his recommendation. I should have
the knife for early season Stripers.

My DR's will still be my bait knives, these work and I can afford to
have my friends drop them overboard.

I have done alot of Shark fishing and agree that you don't need a $300
knife to slab Blues for bait. I'm liking the idea that I can fillet my
catch at the dock with a great knife.

Why not own the best you can afford? If I'm cleaning my own fish on my
Merritt, I'd be using a Wilson!!

Win
 
Extremefishin,

Do you work on a Head boat or a private charter vessel? I am very careful about where and who is touching even my cold-steel knives, and I am interested as to how your handle rotted out? I have one that is going on 3 years now and though it is starting to thin, there is no rust other than that which develops on the edge. Sadly the owner of the boat does not like to SEE us taking tips from his clients and friends. A few times in the deep night offshore however the guests would slip $100 or $200 into my pocket when they were thoughroughly drunk on beer and the steak dinners they just had. Sad too because most of these guys are wearing $10,000 bucks on their wrists, and after about 20 mins on a 100# tuna they are ready to give me the rod. I get paid to work here man, not reel your fish in LOL

JC

So much for not posting again.
 
Jameson,

The boat I work on is both a charter boat, and a head boat. We take out charters for things like black drum, flounder, rockfish, and cobia. During the summer months we mainly run head boat trips from Cherrystone Campground, which is actually where the boat is kept. The money that I make is mainly from the tips I get from helping people out on the boat. Both on the charters and the head boat trips. In fact, the captain makes it a point to mention that the mates work for tips. On most of the charter boats around here, the mates work mostly for tips.

I didn't have the handle rot off of my Cold Steel knife, guess I should have been clearer about that. It was actually a faux bone handled knife, I think it was made by Schrade, but I'm not positive. Not really the best choice for a salt water use, so I guess that one's my fault. I've used a bunch of Shrade Old Timer filet knives. As hard as I tried, I could never get one of them sharp, and had problems with the edge chipping out. But again that was probably my fault. Those fish bones can be tough on an edge at times. So far the only thing I can complain about the Cold Steel is it's ability to rust in the blink of an eye, but the rust will usually come off during an edge touch up.

We don't go offshore, all of our fishing is done in the Chesapeake Bay. We get some drum, cobia, and some sharks, but those are probably the largest species around our area. I think if I even tried to help one of the guys out they'd backhand me out of the way. lol

(chris)
 
Originally posted by C4
Stop fishing if you are so green that you feel "guilty for everyone except the one that had a treble in his eye". You said it yourself you do not like to fish to eat: stop torturing those 600 plus fish a year if you are not man enough to look a fish in the eye and say; "Thanks! I respect the life you give me."
Click to expand...

C4,

I am so glad I am not the only one that feels this way.

I still remember the morning I came face to face with a 6' long, 42 lb. stingray I had just wrenched off the ocean floor (after hours of battle). I looked into his eyes (yes, it was a male) and he was still breathing (a ray is a shark species). He knew he had lost and that his purpose had changed from hunter to prey. I was saddened that this majestic ray had to die. At the same time, I was thankful that it gave it's life so that my family might continue to live.

Right then, the sun gently pierced the sky, as if to say "Go ahead. You've earned it."

I solemly gave thanks and took him home.

For those of you who have never eaten stingray - most of the meat is in the wings. As long as you're willing to peel the slimy skin away (usually requiring pliers) the size and shape of the fillet can't be beat. My favorite was to take a large sized fillet and cube it, then batter and deep-fat-fry the "nuggets".

This particular stingray netted about 15 lbs. of meat and kept us fed for months.

Dan
 
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