Special Considerations for Sharpening Fillet Knife?

bpeezer

bpeezer

Joined
Jan 27, 2013
Messages
2,078
My grandfather brought me his favorite fillet knife and asked me to sharpen it, what kind of edge works well for a fillet knife and are there any special considerations I'll have to take into account when sharpening it? His most frequent use for it will probably be Walleye.
 
I usually go really coarse, coarse side of a combo oil stone or DMT XC. Some like a finer edge though so you might want to ask him.

With the blade being so flexible you will need to walk your fingers down the blade as you sharpen and lighten up the pressure at the tip or you will round it off.
 
Thanks for the recommendation, I used the DMT XC and it worked perfectly. I actually didn't even finish sharpening it...after maybe 5-10 minutes of working on it he checked to see how it was going, decided it was sharper than he'd ever seen that knife and took it back. I took your advice for the tip, I went really light on it and really refined the tip to a good point.
 
I'm not a fisherman, but do fillet knives benefit more from a course, toothy edge or a refined edge? I would think a nice sharp course edge would be more suitable. Knifenut, am I correct in assuming that you feel this way?
 
KNaB said:
I'm not a fisherman, but do fillet knives benefit more from a course, toothy edge or a refined edge? I would think a nice sharp course edge would be more suitable. Knifenut, am I correct in assuming that you feel this way?
Click to expand...
I typically use a XC DMT stone for filet knives, fish are pretty tough to cut in most cases so the coarse edge tends to work better.If we are talking about cutting a large filet of meat then you would want a polished edge as to not tear the cell structure of the filet. That can alter the taste.
 
Fillet knives lead a contradictory life. They have to be so delicately thin and flexible to do the work they are meant to do, yet there are few knives that take such a beating. Fillet any fish, even the noble walleye, and you will in the process be severing dozens of bones and rugged skin, and your knife will be feeling dull in no time. I always have a small pocket steel lying on the table for work like that. After every second fish I pause first to murder the mosquitoes, then to run the edge over the steel a few times. Works just great.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top