- Joined
- May 25, 2013
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- 3,700
Hey guys, I am an avid kayak fisherman and spend a lot of time at the cleaning table with my knives. In fact, I'm on the water most every day so fish processing probably accounts for 90% of the "real use" that my knives get. Interestingly enough I have a decent sized collection of high end folders to play with but have continued to use a $15 filet knife for the only real work that I do with a knife. Well, enough is enough.
I managed to get on the list and later this fall I will be receiving one of Phil Wilsons custom filet knives. A 7.5" Punta Chivato in cpm154. I already own the spyderco edition of his Southfork model (here is a quick review on that one) and it's by far the most versatile, useful, and high performance fixed blade I've ever owned, so I am pretty excited about the filet knife and have high expectations. Anyone else here used his filet knives or any of his other models??
I managed to get on the list and later this fall I will be receiving one of Phil Wilsons custom filet knives. A 7.5" Punta Chivato in cpm154. I already own the spyderco edition of his Southfork model (here is a quick review on that one) and it's by far the most versatile, useful, and high performance fixed blade I've ever owned, so I am pretty excited about the filet knife and have high expectations. Anyone else here used his filet knives or any of his other models??
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. Certain fish like kings, wahoo and mackerel are really easy to fillet. You just make a cut behind the gills and push all the way down to the tail removing the entire fillet in one pass. I find this technique doesn't work as well on fish like snapper. The vertebrae are more prominent so if you skim along the spine you end up leaving too much meat on the ribs...at least that's my result. I like to cut from the top of the fish, skimming over the ribs, then do the same from the bottom. It takes a bit longer but I end up with a ribcage I can read a newspaper through. 
. So I find a bit shorter blade easier and more precise to work with. I actually am using a 6" right now. The reason I'm going a bit longer is the 6" comes up a bit short when I am removing the skin from the fillets on a cutting board. 
