Good Filet Knife?

[dpimpc]

I'm currently looking for a good quality filet knife to buy for my father for his birthday. Does anyone have suggestions on a good knife, preferably below $50? Thanks in advance. -Dan

 

[Plumber576]

Try to find a benchmade griptilian, or mini griptilian. great knives.

 

[dpimpc]

I actually own both of those. I'm looking for a more traditional style filet knife for fishing. You are right though, the grip and mini-grips are great knives for the money.

 

[Stockman]

A lot will depending on the type and size of fish that you will be filleting.
I find a fixed blade - 6" to 7" blade length with some flex in the top 3 inches from the tip works best.
For under $50.00 look at the Schrade brand, you can pick them up quite cheaply on Ebay. I find them very functional and easy to sharpen. Recently bought one off ebay with a burgundy Micarta handle, a realy nice filleting knife for $38.00.

 

[Pocketknife]

USA-made, high quality, very solid, hygienic handles, very common in professional seafood use: Dexter-Russell knives.
http://www.dexter-russell.com/PDF/seafood.pdf
I like the looks of models 24103 and 24113.

Swedish-made, also excellent tools common in the seafood industry: Frosts knives
http://www.frosts.se/catalogue_uk_main.html
Check out model 776 WGS on p.19 of "A Catalogue". Has plastic spoon end for scooping out the blood (kidney) line along fishees backbone.
Also model 896 on p.20 of "A Catalogue".
In "B Catalogue", p. 8, check out model 9152P (metal spoon end), and on p.9 model 9151.

Finnish-made, also excellent tools, classic Scandanavian style: Marttiini
http://www.marttiini.fi/puukot/shop/english/cont.asp?languageID=2&deptid=17
Take a look at these ones: 630010, 622015, and 836014T

For a gift for my Dad, I'd go for quality PLUS class! Marttiini.

 

[Pocketknife]

I forgot: Marttiini knives are also sold under the Rapala name:
http://tackledirect.com/rapalaknives.html

 

[Mentor]

For extremely functional but presentable fillet knives, I would check out the Grohmann line, here. The 6" fillet with leather belt sheath (RF600S) is my personal fave.

Cheers,

Mike

 

[fulloflead]

They're not pretty, but these WORK REALLY WELL:

http://www.crkt.com/bigeddy_.html

I brought one to Alaska with me one year and people who've processed a lot of fish were impressed with it.

.

 

[Boozoo Chavis]

Knives Of Alaska makes one of the better fillet knives I've used.(AUS-8 with a Rockwell hardness 57-59) Cabela's sells them in a 6", 8" or a combo w/both 6" and 8".
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...html.8&Go.x=20&returnPage=search-results1.jsp

 

[Jockohomo]

All the knives mentioned so far are great but don't disregard the Cold Steel filet knives. They are carbon steel, very sharp, very easy to sharpen and rust has never been an issue.

 

[Way-O]

I've found the Marttiini stainless steel to perform poorly. That said, their wood handled knives are nicely finished and beautiful. The rubber handled models (Condor line) are IMO no good for kitchen use. The bolster/guard is not sealed against the blade properly, a hygiene issue, and the handle overall is not versatile enough.

If a folding knife is an option, the Spyderco Catcherman and EKA folding fillet are solid choices. The latter is sold by Cutlery to Go at least.

A model from Forschner/Victorinox won a fillet test by a local outdoors magazine not too long ago. They found no drawbacks. 43 fillet knives from 13 different manufacturers were tested in real use at two fish processing plants, by the workers. It was one of their fibrox handle ones, but the same knives are available with the nicer looking (and good) wooden handles as well.

 

[Pocketknife]

Way-O, would you know which specific model of Forschner/Victorinox filet knife won that test?
Thanks in advance!

P.S. I notice that my local butcher uses Forschner/Victorinox knives.

 

[Way-O]

The model is stated as 5.3703.20

 

[Pocketknife]

Thanks very much, Way-O. I'll have to look for one of those!

 

[fruitbat]

I was just about to start a thread about this very thing.

I've been using a Gerber filet knife for years now with no real problems. It preforms well and has a built in sharpener. But it's really the only kind I ever used. Before that I just used whatever my friends had which was usually a cheapo that they got from the Bait-N-Tackel store, the kind they have a bunch in a shoe box next to the register.

But I've started wondering what else was out there.

I recently got a Spyderco Catcherman, but haven't had the chanceto us it yet. Anybody used one of these?

 

[brownshoe]

For a folding fillet, I like the Queen toothpick. Comes in D2, classic 4" blade with a selection of handles and is less than $50.

 

[bob bowie]

Just another vote for Victorinox.

 

[Denix]

I've found the Marttiini stainless steel to perform poorly. That said, their wood handled knives are nicely finished and beautiful. The rubber handled models (Condor line) are IMO no good for kitchen use. The bolster/guard is not sealed against the blade properly, a hygiene issue, and the handle overall is not versatile enough.
QUOTE]

Same here. I've been using a Marttini rubber handled fillet knife for years. I typically need to touch up the blade after 2-3 fish. Although I admit that sharpening at 40 degrees on the sharpmaker improved the edge durability, but it's still pretty poor IMHO.

I'll be looking to replace it with something that has better steel.

Guy

 

[BenchmadeNut]

Benchmade just came out with a new folding filet knife with aus-8 steel. Only 20 bucks with a lifetime warranty sounds like a good deal to me. Check it out http://www.benchmade.com/products/product_detail.aspx?model=10115

 

[STR]

The Spyderco Catcherman is my fave. It is a folder but very capable none the less and actually a pretty great kitchen knife as well.