good Carp cutter?

[chopchop]

Hey guys... I'm looking for a good, cheap knife to cut through carp scales. I have to fillet a bunch of them for work, & the scales just chew up a good edge. Any ideas?

I'm thinking of trying one of these Dexter Russell utility knives:

 

[DWK2]

www.leechlakeknife.com

Although these knives may be out of your price range, the key to this guy's system is the WAY that he uses the knife. The knives are designed to permit you to cut from under the fish's skin outward. That avoids a lot of the edge degradation caused by cutting through the outer surface of the scales and the silt that can be lodged between the scales of bottom fish.

I have used this knife on salmon in AK and it performs quite well. You can use the Leech Lake technique with other knives but the curved tip and sharpened back of his blade make it easier to do.

DancesWithKnives

 

[mcjhrobinson]

cut it? with a KNIFE?! i thought we just bite into it like bear grylls!!!!!

 

[DWK2]

That's only if you have some elephant dung water with which to wash it down....:barf:

DancesWithKnives

 

[Jason B.]

Mora #549 and a coarse DMT, its more about the edge than the knife.

 

[chopchop]

Mora #549 and a coarse DMT, its more about the edge than the knife.

At the moment we use a Mora 546 to break through the scales & then a rapala to do the fillets. I just get tired of resharpening. I was thinking something serrated might not bind up & dull as quickly.



That leech lake knife looks interesting, but anything custom is definitely out of the price range at this point. Using his technique, though, I guess we could try and use a thinner knife to get under the scales and cut up and out, rather than down and in towards the spine.

I don't know if any of you have ever actually filleted a carp since most people don't eat them by choice, but old carp slime/blood is one of the most potent and vile things you'll ever smell... not as bad as a skunk, but even just a couple drops of carp blood will make your gear smell like death for at least a wash or two. Scaling before filleting is a nasty proposition for these guys. If I were eating them, I'd pressure cook the damn things, but we do fish tissue analysis, so the lab needs fillets.


thanks for the thoughts... it's always interesting to hear how other people do things

 

[Joezilla]

I've used the inca knife against a gar before. Worked pretty well. The gar lost.

 

[hung-solo]

why do you want to cut carp?? the meat sucks

 

[derrickd803]

At the moment we use a Mora 546 to break through the scales & then a rapala to do the fillets. I just get tired of resharpening. I was thinking something serrated might not bind up & dull as quickly.

But it will take longer to sharpen when it does get dull

 

[DWK2]

hung-solo: He cuts them up for fish tissue analysis.

It sounds like the best compromise would be to use an inexpensive knife and try getting under the scales with the tip, then cutting up through the skin. Grinding the knife edge against the outside of the scales probably does most of the dulling.

I've seen some people who filet a lot of panfish at lakes use electric carving knives with serrated blades. You see those at garage sales occasionally. Might find some on E-bay.

DancesWithKnives

 

[valcas1]

Why not just get a fish scaler and run it along the spine just to remove those big fingernail sized scales. Then you could use your regular knife. that's the way I used to do it when I owned a fish store and had to fillet them for the holiday season.

I think you will find it quicker than doing it with that little knife you were thinking about.

Paul

 

[Classic Chris]

I like to catch them but don't fancy eating them !!!

 

[DWK2]

I've never cleaned them myself but I read that primitive cultures used to employ the dried skin as a form of sandpaper. Must be abrasive stuff. I can see why it would dull a blade!

DancesWithKnives

 

[pitdog]

Nice fish Chris !!!

If you plan on eating Carp, they should never be cooked when first taken out of a pond, but be placed in a container in running water. This will help in getting rid of their somewhat muddy flavour. Here is a traditional carp recipe from Poland:

Carp with Soured Cream Sauce
1/4 cup butter
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup of sour cream
1 lemon (juice)
salt and pepper
1 carp, 3-4 pound, cleaned and ready to cook
Grease a shallow making dish with butter. Season carp inside and out with salt and pepper, place bay leaves on butter and place this on your carp. Cover with sour cream and lemon juice. Bake in oven 350 F for 40 minutes or until brown. Baste frequently. Serve with potatoes. Makes 2 large servings.


Seems some people must like em......

 

[kgd]

hung-solo: He cuts them up for fish tissue analysis.

Hey cool - that would be my business! We grind them up using a 2 hp meat grinder for whole body residues. Carp are a pain because of the scales and find that it is better to remove the scales prior to grinding.

Unfortunately, my guys in the lab use cheap blades because they go through them so quickly. We like using heavy cleavers to chunk up the fish. Freeze the chunks and then plop them through a grinder.

When we do skinless dorsal muscle fillets, we use a serrated bread knife or sometimes a hack saw to cut through the heavy scales and once through the scales use a fillet knife (Rappala's).

Carp can be a pain to process but no where near as bad as gar pike. They actually have little bits of bone in their scales making the super tough!!!

 

[dipbait]

I have filleted carp a few times. Its the one fish I dont use a delicate fillet knife on. I use Old hickory boning , butcher , slicer... knives.

 

[chopchop]

Hey cool - that would be my business! We grind them up using a 2 hp meat grinder for whole body residues. Carp are a pain because of the scales and find that it is better to remove the scales prior to grinding.

Unfortunately, my guys in the lab use cheap blades because they go through them so quickly. We like using heavy cleavers to chunk up the fish. Freeze the chunks and then plop them through a grinder.

When we do skinless dorsal muscle fillets, we use a serrated bread knife or sometimes a hack saw to cut through the heavy scales and once through the scales use a fillet knife (Rappala's).

Carp can be a pain to process but no where near as bad as gar pike. They actually have little bits of bone in their scales making the super tough!!!

KGD- It sounds like we ARE in the same business! We don't do the analysis in house, but supply the fish tissue samples to another lab. They do dorsal fillets for mercury. We've done the whole fish thing, but usually for metals and using smaller fish. The fish we keep for this project are 3lbs and up. I've got a DR fish splitter that I'd be happy to chunk them with, but they want clean fillets... no skin, scales, or bones.

We do field work all over the central plains. This summer we were on tribs of the Missouri River from the Big Sioux above Sioux City to the confluence with the Mississippi. The study is on eating size fish, and we get quite a few cats, but carp are the bulk of the catch. Are you in the same area?


We may try an electric knife and a bigger serrated slicer, along with the cutting back from underneath trick. Paul's spine-scaling idea could work too. I haven't had much luck with it, as the scales seem to be better attached than with other kinds of fish... it ends up taking me longer than the slice and sharpen, slice and sharpen routine. Might be operator error on that one.

I'm up for anything that will work.

 

[SouthernCross]

I like to catch them but don't fancy eating them !!!

+1

Kind regards
Mick

 

[sasha]

We remove the scales first and then fillet them.. Im going to fish for them in two weeks. On avg we catch 100lb+ of carp and if we are lucky about 15-50 crappi as well. The meat is very tasty but lots of bones. If you anything like my dad who loves the heads the most. He eats them so fast you might think there is not a single bone in it.. We drive about 3 hours one way for the carp.. There is one lake that i like the fish the most as it has more of a sweet flavor to it compare to other lakes...

Mick that is one hell of a good catch... What did you use for bait and what type a rig do you use???


Sasha

 

[seth]

i work as a commercial fisherman at times, the one knife i always go back to is a dexter-russel slime knife, the carp scales do look like a nuisance, i know a guy that likes eating tarpon, his technique is to remove the head first, then fillet from the head to the tail, then take the skin off after, leaving the scales on the skin