Uses for Flexible Chef knife

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KitchenCommander

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I picked up an old Dexter Chef knife from a thrift store with a bent and broken tip just as a project knife to play around with. Soon as I saw it I knew I could cut the damaged portion off and bring the tip down to a Gyuto like profile. It went from about 10" blade to around 9" blade, but I think the overall profile came out well.

I noticed when I picked it up that it had a very thin and flexible taper, which I didn't pay much attention to at first. When I was sharpening and doing some cutting I noticed the flex was not working very well for me. Its not a slight flex, its full on fillet knife flex starting about halfway down the blade.

Its not doing very well for me on standard chopping duty. So what are the strengths of a knife like this? I'm sure there are other old chef knives with thin tapers that get lots of love, so what do you use your flexible chef knives for?

Its probably a good slicer, but I have 2 Old Hickory carvers, and a modified Forgecraft carver that are all pretty stiff slicers. Granted they are a little shorter.

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If anyone is interested I can post a photo of the knife flexing, but I didn't have one handy.
 
I have a big old Dexter Russel that has a good deal of flex. I use it most days. I use it for bigger fish filets like Halibut and Salmon, the flex is helpful for skinning. Mine has more height at the heel than yours and I use it for cutting large amounts of herbs like parsley and rosemary. I like using the softer steel for rock chopping the herbs to save my harder more valuable knives from taking the abuse and torsion of rocking on a poly board. I would really miss this knife Iftar went away. It is the only thing protecting me from the single bevel rabbit hole for fish fabrication, and it buys a ton of time for the edges on my luxury knives by taking it for the team with the rough stuff.

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Western style fish fabrication.

[video=youtube;Tgkw5ttuJeU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgkw5ttuJeU[/video]
 
Too many. Yes. This is a super old vid so it's seen even more since then.
 
Thanks for the replies.
I normally use a fillet knife to process my fish. I usually catch Red fish and Speckled Trout out in the bay, so they are more narrow and streamlined than off shore fish. I probably wont need a 9" blade for those type of fish. I'm a home cook so I dont see many off shore fish of different shapes and sizes. Basically those 2 types are all I get unless I buy some salmon fillets or other from the grocery store.

Flexible knives appear to be used for mostly slicing, so I'll keep it around for those type tasks. It was very inexpensive so I dont feel bad just having it around for fun right now.

If anyone else has used flexible knives in different ways please share.
Thanks again!
 
Here is a pic of the fish I work with. I'm in the left with my brother on the right. My dad tooknthe photo so thats the catch for the 3 of us

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Couple nice size specs. I grew up just south of Houston and fished mainly chocolate bayou. I miss that type of fishing.
 
Yeah we caught those in Lake Charles Louisiana where my parents were living at the time. They have some big trout over there. They are now living in Matagorda and Dad likes being able to fish so often.

I moved to mid Texas after college so I only get to go down there and fish a couple times a year. But I always bring pounds of fillets back with me everytime I go. Always prepacked fillets so I only really process fish with a fillet knife when I get to go down home.
 

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