RokJok
Gold Member
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2000
- Messages
- 4,198
Mrs RokJok found a sockeye salmon on sale at a good price the other day and figured we needed to bring it home. (Fresh salmon? God, I love living in the NW! 
) It was about the back 2/3 of the gutted fish all in one chunk. My wife wanted me to cut it up into steaks for freezing. So I took the Basic 7 from my belt and started in on that bad boy.
The edge slid through the skin and meat like the proverbial hot butter, although I did have to saw back & forth a bit to get it started through the scales. When I got to the spine I just leaned into the blade a little more and it popped through that just fine too. No damage to the edge from any of it. I noticed that there were some nice cuts into the plastic cutting board when I had freed each steak, so that edge was still plenty sharp. Toward the back of the fish there were a couple of little fins (adipose & ventral maybe?) that I didn't want to leave on the steaks. So I took the tip of the Basic 7 and slit along each side of the attaching bones so I could pull the fins out with my fingers. That's an impressive trick with a not-terribly-pointy tip on a 1/4" thick blade.
After I got done cutting the salmon steaks I washed the blade and gave it a very few licks on the Spyderco model 203 Sharpmaker I keep in the kitchen. I did it as much for amusement as for any need, since the blade was still sharp. But if I don't play with my cutting and sharpening toys how can I justify buying more of them? After hitting the Sharpmaker, the blade was totally shaving sharp again and went back on my belt, ready for the next job.
) It was about the back 2/3 of the gutted fish all in one chunk. My wife wanted me to cut it up into steaks for freezing. So I took the Basic 7 from my belt and started in on that bad boy.The edge slid through the skin and meat like the proverbial hot butter, although I did have to saw back & forth a bit to get it started through the scales. When I got to the spine I just leaned into the blade a little more and it popped through that just fine too. No damage to the edge from any of it. I noticed that there were some nice cuts into the plastic cutting board when I had freed each steak, so that edge was still plenty sharp. Toward the back of the fish there were a couple of little fins (adipose & ventral maybe?) that I didn't want to leave on the steaks. So I took the tip of the Basic 7 and slit along each side of the attaching bones so I could pull the fins out with my fingers. That's an impressive trick with a not-terribly-pointy tip on a 1/4" thick blade.
After I got done cutting the salmon steaks I washed the blade and gave it a very few licks on the Spyderco model 203 Sharpmaker I keep in the kitchen. I did it as much for amusement as for any need, since the blade was still sharp. But if I don't play with my cutting and sharpening toys how can I justify buying more of them? After hitting the Sharpmaker, the blade was totally shaving sharp again and went back on my belt, ready for the next job.
