knife for cleaning fish?

shootist16

shootist16

knife law moderator
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I am thinking of taking up fishing. Anyone care to recommend an economical knife that is excellent at cleaning fish?

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"Those who trade essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin
 
IMHO, almost any sharp knife works fine for cleaning, I prefer small thin blades. For tasks other than cleaning I think it is hard to beat the Cold Steel filet knives in carbon V. And last but not least, fingernail clippers are very handy for cutting line. Hope this helps.
David
 
I use a Schrade Sharpfinger for everything except filleting. If the fish can fit on the BBQ whole, he gets cooked that way. Sharpfinger removes the guts and gills, then go over 'em with the scaler. Yes I leave the head on, for 2 reasons...1. I like them to look back at me & 2 my mother-in-law likes the heads of the larger fish (Yes, I agree...eeechhh)
The ones that are too big for the BBQ get filleted with my Schrade filet knife (I'm a schrade fan, can ya tell?) Back to the sharpfinger to steak them if they are way big 20# +...
My sharpfinger, over the years has cleaned a couple hundred bluefish, porgies and the occasional spanish mackeral & bonito. And a few trout too. It is a great, easy to sharpen little knife. BUT it will rust if you don't care of it.
Tight Lines!
 
Small, thin blades ? Sharpfingers? We have to use big knives here in SC
wink.gif
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catfish3.jpg
 
What kind of fishing? For average lake trout (speckled, rainbow, etc...) I like the CRKT Neck Peck: small, light, sharp and thin. Might want to use the lanyard-like hole in the handle -- AUS6 doesn't float too well and the handle can be a little thin-ish when slimed up. But, they're cheap...

RLR
 
I've tried almost all of the ones on the market. The best I've found for all around is the Spyderco Catcherman. Great Blade for filleting.
You'll enjoy fishing--

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Lead,follow, or get the hell out of the way!
 
If you're cleaning lots of fish and particularly, larger fish, then the electric filet knife is hard to beat. I still use my regular filet knives (Normark), but the electric is my favorite.

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I was born with nothing and I still have most of it.
 
Hey MarkK! How come your fish has a moustache?
wink.gif

Do you steak them big cats or fillet them?
Nice catch, tight lines and sharp blades!
Ebbtide out.
 
I use a "Dexter Russel" NSF marked filet knife when I lived in Lousiana. Would take a good edge and wasn't too expensive if it was lost over the side of the boat.

But for fresh water most any small sharp knife will work.


Hey MarkK pretty nice "kitten" fish. I guess I got spoiled seeing all of the BIG fish come in from off-shore.
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Dwight

It's a fine line between "a hobby" and "mental illness".

[This message has been edited by pyrguy (edited 02-10-2000).]
 
If you are going to fillet, then an electric is the only way to go when making the cut down the back bone, especially if you have a several to clean. A good old plain old Rapala, or Normark is still a good choice to seperate the skin from the meat.
 
I've never used them but gerber has some that look good, if they take an edge better than the blades on my gerber multi pliar. They have a ceramic sharpener built into the sheath to. Wait a minute,thats dumb, ceramic clogs up and needs cleaned to work right. I don't know why I didn't think of that till now. Any wasy the knives themselves look pretty good as long as they'll get sharp.I think one of them has serrations to make those tough cuts go easier too. Check them out at www.gerberblades.com

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Fix it right the first time, use Baling Wire !
 
shootist16, well you have lots of knife choices. The knife is the easy part. Now you have to catch the fish which might not be. Be sure to let us know how the fishing goes. I did notice that you do live in a state that is known for good fishing. Good luck.

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I was born with nothing and I still have most of it.
 
Man, you guys use some strange things - electric knives? Huh!
Shootist16, for the best fish filleting knives (and very economical too!) go with J.Marttiini knives. That link is to their English web pages, but unfortunately the links there are sometimes, well... to get to the knives don't click the 'catalogue' from that page (goes to Finnish pages). Instead click on 'The secret of easy filleting' (and read that through) and then click from that page to 'catalogue' and 'fishing'. AFAIK the knives are still convex ground and very sharp (although the steel isn't anything special). The birch handle is beautifull, but the 'rubber' handle on the condors is said to be very good. Doesn't get slippery even when filleting with wet and slippery hands. There is also a beautifull filleting knife on the 'gifts' page, and some great sets on the 'household' page. I'm going to get one of those sets one day.
These knives are imported by Normark to USA and Canada. Normarks phone numbers are listed on the 'company' pages.

Hugo.

[This message has been edited by Hugo (edited 02-14-2000).]
 
I really like the budget Kellam Scandinavian fixed blade I got from James Mattis. Costs only about $12 and comes in an ambidextrous sheath you can clip to your pocket. Those Scandinavians know about fishing.
I like using a fixed blade to clean fish because getting guts and gunk in the pivot of a folder is kind of a hassle. You've probably got a ton of knives that'd work fine for fishing, except maybe for filleting, which calls for a pretty specialized design: long, thin, flexible, pointy blade.
 
I've used a Lakota Finwing for many years on 6" trout to the 41 pound salmon the wife(grrrr) caught. Works fine for the one or two allowed nowadays and stiff enough to steak out the big ones. If I'm filleting then I grab my Gerber Coho.


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><CHINOOK*>
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Cleverly Disguised As A Responsible Adult
 
AFAIK the knives are still convex ground and very sharp (although the steel isn't anything special).

I have used a Marttini to fillet fish for 30 years. I have small ones for small fish and large ones for big fish. And I agree that they are sharp when new, but when they need sharpening, which is often because you use a very sharp knife for fillet otherwise you rip the flesh, they are not easy to sharpen. They are very flexible, especially at the tip and for filleting you only really use two or three inches from the tip down to make your initial incision, then you use the rest of the blade to separate the fillet from the vertebra. I use a fine DMT diamond followed by a hard Arkansas, but never seem to get the blade as sharp as I would like it. Any help with sharpening Marttinis would be appreciated, TIA

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Dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.
 
V44, sorry, can't help you much with the sharpening. The initial edge is convex on Marttiini's, so it's quite hard to get that back. I can not do that. But after it get's dull most people probably sharpen it the 'normal' way. From my experience the Marttiini steel (like I said, nothing special - that's why they are very affordable) does get sharp, but might not hold it for as long as these modern super steels. And the flex makes it harder. I'm personally now thinking that the Spyderco sharp maker might be the best system for long knives. But if you are used to sharpening by hand, then I think you should get better results with that method. Of course it never hurts to try the Spyderco. It's fast too. You could use it like steel. BTW, have you tried steeling the knives between usage? But I really know of no special tips on how to sharpen the filleting knives.

Hugo.
 
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