Fish and blade steel

Don Adelfson

Don Adelfson

Joined
Oct 12, 2001
Messages
579
I recently ruined a perfectly good fillet knife using it to cut off fish heads.

I have a new fillet knife.

I need something to cut off fish heads that will not require frequent re-sharpening. Toughness counts more than sharpness here. Which steel will best hold a reasonably decent edge while being tough enough to decapitate a couple dozen 2-3 lb. rock cod ?

Don
 
I'd consider a cleaver or hunter's hatchet for that application. If you want something more exotic, check out the Uluchet: www.silverstar.com/turnermfg

Cliff Stamp turned me on to this excellent product. It is D2 tool steel and hell-for-sharp. Great edge retention. Of course, you'd need to clean it after use near saltwater. If you have questions, you can call the maker, PJ Turner, at 800-638-9969.

A hearty welcome to Bladeforums!
 
Cold Steel offers a variety of fillet knives in Carbon V, with its black coating. Good, tough steel but you need to wash it after using and oil (Tuff cloth) to prevent rust along the uncoated edge.
 
Just about any decent chef's knife should work here. A small to medium sized cleaver would work well too. I like to save my fillet knife for the delicate work, but otherwise any knife in my drawer/block larger than a pairing knife and thicker than a bread knife will cut fish heads all day... When camping, I've used my Livesay model 131 (Air Assault) for fish and endless other cutting chores. Come to think of it, my large Sebenza has done this kind of work too, but not as comfortably as any of the others.
 
For cutting requiring a strong drive that may come into contact with bone, and more importantly may see a bit of twisting (very bad), the best option would be another knife. As Matthew noted a chef's knife will do it well as it is much stiffer than a fillet blade and thus will be able to do a near vertical cut quite easily. The Uluchet would also handle it with ease as DWK noted.

If you want to use a fillet blade I would strongly suggest that you contact Phil Wilson and discuss the matter with him : seamount@bigplanet.com . His fillet blades are ground from 1/8" stock and since they have a distal taper, they have the necessary strength near the base of the blade to allow a strong cut, and as the blade thins, while at the same time giving high cutting ability along the rest of the blade, which increases as you go out towards the tip.

I would suggest that you have a short section of the blade, say 1" or so near the base sharpened at a more obtuse angle than the rest of the blade. This would give it the necessary durability to provide a decent safety margin for the cutting. But again, just discuss it with Phil, he is quite experienced in such matters.

-Cliff
 
Hold fish with left hand, .45 caliber in right hand. use a round nose per fish. Enjoy, makes fish cleaning interesting!!!!
stumpy...em, Wolf:p
 
Don't use that thin fillet knife and leave the chef's knife in the kitchen. I cut the heads off of about 50-100 salmon per year. A few years ago I purchased a Forschner Victorinox Slime Knife (model # 40712) at a local butcher supply store here in Anchorage, Alaska. Do a search and you'll find it on the net. It has a thin, yet stout blade and an ugly yellow handle. I was designed to cut fish. It takes sockeye, king, and coho heads off with ease. Well, actually king heads take an extra little push. :D

Best of all, it was about 20 bucks.

The knife won't look great on your belt, but it gets the job done.
 
Thanks to all who repsonded to my "fish head" inquiry. I am fairly new to serious knife collecting, but have had a long time interest.

Every day when reading the posts I am amazed at how much there is to learn and how knowledgeable you guys are! Thanks, again.

Don
 
Normark Serrated Big Game filet knife. I think that's the name of it, or at least something to that effect. The blade is about 9 inches long and it is fully serrated, they're just like the large serrations on Spyderco's knives. I've had pretty good luck using that knife.

Chris
 
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