Recommendation? Fillet knife

[Kevin McGovern]

I have made several out of AEB-L. Because it's the only stainless I have used. I have had great feedback on them. Of course most people are used to 420 performance in a filet knife...

 

[Geoff Flato]

I have made several out of AEB-L. Because it's the only stainless I have used. I have had great feedback on them. Of course most people are used to 420 performance in a filet knife...

That is a very good point. All the fishing guides I know complain that factory made ones always either dull very quickly, or snap off right where the handle starts. I've seen them go through half a dozen or more $60 fillet knives in a season. Probably why a $300 fillet knife that will last for many years is such a good seller.

 

[Csalmon]

Those of you who commented "other stainless" what would you pick?

 

[timos-]

managed to get some stripers in the 35" range last weekend....Ive never filet a fish of this size before. I watch a pro do several of them. He had a large beat up filet knife he use to make cuts through the scales, and a smaller fine edge filet knife to cut the bottom of the fillet from the bone area. Ok so I though easy enough....I took one fish home to filet myself. I grabbed the only knife I had on hand atm a 7" long w2 kitchen knife. Probably .010 behind the edge. Ok those scales are tough! really tough. AEBL maybe good for smaller scale/soft skinned fish, but you need something real serious for a fish of this size. I am sure there must be some kind of knack to getting the edge in under the scales but that was really tough. Something really toothy would have been great. Next I am going to try a CTS XHP Blade in a deba/filet hybrid profile

 

[Geoff Flato]

I think it's really technique more than anything. I've seen some guides I know use a $6 fillet knife to fillet a briefcase sized snapper in under a minute. Big snappers have scales damn near like coins

I on the other hand couldn't fillet a snapper to save my life

 

[tim37a]

My preference would be:
M390 4% V, 1.9% C
Elmax 3% V, 1.7% C
S35VN 3% V, 1.4% C
The slightly toothy edge from the V will get you through scales better than a smooth edge, the C is high enough to allow for a fairly hard edge at Rc 61-62, and they all are fairly easy to sharpen. Just my opinion.
Tim

 

[Csalmon]

My preference would be:
M390 4% V, 1.9% C
Elmax 3% V, 1.7% C
S35VN 3% V, 1.4% C
The slightly toothy edge from the V will get you through scales better than a smooth edge, the C is high enough to allow for a fairly hard edge at Rc 61-62, and they all are fairly easy to sharpen. Just my opinion.
Tim

M390 sounds like something I want to try soon

 

[StuNY]

managed to get some stripers in the 35" range last weekend....Ive never filet a fish of this size before. I watch a pro do several of them. He had a large beat up filet knife he use to make cuts through the scales, and a smaller fine edge filet knife to cut the bottom of the fillet from the bone area. Ok so I though easy enough....I took one fish home to filet myself. I grabbed the only knife I had on hand atm a 7" long w2 kitchen knife. Probably .010 behind the edge. Ok those scales are tough! really tough. AEBL maybe good for smaller scale/soft skinned fish, but you need something real serious for a fish of this size. I am sure there must be some kind of knack to getting the edge in under the scales but that was really tough. Something really toothy would have been great. Next I am going to try a CTS XHP Blade in a deba/filet hybrid profile

Yes, these big Striper are really hard on a knife! I am regularly filleting them for myself and friends on the boat after a day's fishing. The CPM-154 knives I made hold up pretty well with those crazy scales but I notice if I don't sharpen after a couple fish I am more "tearing" than cutting! As much as I like AEBL for my kitchen knives I don't think I could finish a big striper without sharpening on the boat. Interesting idea though to make the first cut through the scales with another knife then fillet with something sharper. I will give that a shot this weekend- we are in full on striper season now here in NY!

 

[WC53]

Great thread! My brain is numb reading and researching steels for a fillet knife for thick scaled fish. Getting sharp and staying there. I have been looking at Nitro-V, s35VN, M390, XHP

The discussion on the larger carbides working better vs the finer carbides is interesting and makes some sense given how I sharpen a fillet knife, couple passes on DMT F/EF and a couple strops of 1micron cbn on balsa.

No stripers down here, but red/black drum, sheepshead and triple tail are heck on a knife

 

[gdpolk]

AEBL or s35 depending on what you want the knife to do. I'm going to be running a small batch in AEBL soon, one for myself. I'm looking forward to it.