Fish knife suggestions

I'm looking for a knife to slice the skin off of salmon fillets. I've tried many types from a 10" chef's knife to multiple sushi style knives to slicers and deboners and flexible carvers. I have yet to find a knife that felt perfect but a Shun pro 9.5" yanagi has felt the best so far. I eat salmon 1-2x's a week, I want something dedicated to just trimming the skin off of the whole piece of salmon



What country are you in?

A: USA


What type of knife are you interested in:

A: Trimming skin from salmon fillets.


Are you right or left handed?

A: right handed, using knife to go right to left along cutting board

Are you interested in a Western handle or Japanese handle?

A: prefer Japanese octogan or maybe D-shape but could live with a more rounded western handle (Kramer vs, Wustoff's squared style)

What length of knife (blade) are you interested in (in inches or millimeters)?

A: 8" - 10" approximate, no more than 12-13"

Do you require a stainless knife?

A: no

What is your absolute maximum budget for your knife?

A: $500 ish

Do you primarily intend to use this knife at home or a professional environment?

A: home kitchen

What are the main tasks you primarily intend to use the knife for

A: trimming skin from salmon fillet. If its a sushi style knife, maybe slicing and trimming other fish fillets.


What knife, if any, are you replacing?

A: none, was using a 8" chef's knife, before that a very cheap shun pro 9.5" yanagi

Do you have a particular grip that you primarily use?

A: not in particular for this specific task


What cutting motions do you primarily use?

A: I prefer to lay skin side down on the board, hold salmon with left hand pressing down, and using knife in my right hand, go from right to left along the inside of the skin, separating the skin and meat.


What improvements do you want from your current knife?

A: better control/feel, giving a laser like cut separating the skin only, wasting as little meat as possible. Gives me feedback where I can feel the difference in the blade cutting skin vs meat. The yanagi i had before was close, but just felt a little bulky and dull. Tried upgrading to better steels and putting a better edge on it, but those actually felt thicker and "numb" with their feedback

Better aesthetics

A: open to anything that feels best

Comfort

A: light, thin, excellent feedback


Ease of use

A: slicing is the only concern


Edge Retention

A: 4 fillets per week max, would like to go 4-6 months between sharpening touchups, so like 64 slices, lol


Do you use a bamboo, wood, rubber, or synthetic cutting board?

A: synthetic with fish, but will never be touching the boatd

Do you sharpen your own knives?

A: Yes


Are you interested in purchasing sharpening products for your knives?

A: Already have stones

Forgot to ask...from the way I've seen most sushi chefs cut with a yanagi, the single bevel faces the cut piece while the flat side faces the solid fish.

Since I am cutting right to left, I would think it would be best to have the flat edge along the skin and the bevel facing up? Am I just looking for a yanagi left handed blade to use?

I suggest a 270 mioroshi deba. It's a hybrid knife combining yanagiba and deba. I use this knife exclusively for cleaning whole salmon. Beheading, filleting, skinning and portioning all with the one knife where traditionally you would use the two. You have a good budget to get a nice one as well. Here's how I cut the fish a few years back. The vid was made 6 months after I got the knife. I've had it for 6 years now.

[video=youtube;nRHplpAaJj4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRHplpAaJj4[/video]

mille162 said:

Forgot to ask...from the way I've seen most sushi chefs cut with a yanagi, the single bevel faces the cut piece while the flat side faces the solid fish.

Since I am cutting right to left, I would think it would be best to have the flat edge along the skin and the bevel facing up? Am I just looking for a yanagi left handed blade to use?

Click to expand...

Can't offer much input to the fish knife… but if I follow, you are cutting towards yourself and thinking of a left hand single bevel? I do the same with a right hand mukimono as a lefty, it's the best peeler/paring knife I have for laser thin slices.

I don't know which technique is more correct but I lay the side down with head (already removed) to my right, tail end in front of me. Cut a small notch in tail in a steep right to left cut. Then go in at the notch, flat side of knife (yani or mioroshi deba) down and remove skin from left to right. This mostly accomplished by pulling skin towards me - the knife pretty much remains in place. I don't think I've ever seen it done differently.

My mioroshi is a 210 Suisin Ginsanko, I've bought salmon just to use it.

Are you cutting 6oz fillets from the store or whole sides of salmon?

If it is smaller fillets maybe a thin spines suji?

http://korin.com/HSU-WASU-240?sc=27&category=8549829

Well you could always use a flexible filet knife. They're... you know... designed to... filet...fish. Works quite well actually. Even a complete fish-tard like me can get good results with them.

Or... just leave it on. You're tossing away the best part of the salmon.

I bought a Suisin Inox Honyaki 210 mm petty for just this task. It's a true laser and holds an edge very well. My favorite fillet knife. I've had this knife for several years now and it's the only knife I use for filleting salmon.

Jovidah said:

Well you could always use a flexible filet knife. They're... you know... designed to... filet...fish. Works quite well actually. Even a complete fish-tard like me can get good results with them.

Or... just leave it on. You're tossing away the best part of the salmon.

Click to expand...

Oh yeah, crispy salmon skin... :hungry:

You're in Florida where you have access to tons of local fish, stop eating salmon. 😀 try using just your hand after getting it started. Press your fingers together tight, then push away from you with your pinky finger side like a human knife edge.

For this task I honestly prefer a 10" Dexter chefs with 20deg bevels , reprofiled to a flat edge pointy k-tip and only draw cuts.

All great input, thank you.

Daveb; i'm going to try reversing my technique and start with pulling the skin instead of pressing down slightly on the whole fish

Theory, Deanb; I'm going to take a look at those this week at Korin!

Jovidah: not a fan of salmon skin and no one else in my family will eat it either, so it goes right into the trash...the filet knife I previously tried just felt too "loose" and I wasn't a fan of it. Icould have just been that particular knife, but I thought I was going to like the yanagi better, but given how I was trimming the fish, thought maybe I needed a left handed edge

Thanks again for all the suggestions!

I'm having a bit of difficulty picturing how you're doing the filetting. You're cutting right to left even though you're right handed. That'd feel weird.... how do you hold on to the tail end?
I'm a righty and I have the tail on the left, start on the left side and cut towards the right side, while holding tail with the left hand.
And surprising how no one likes the salmon skin. Not even when you fry it almost entirely on that side and it's all crispy?

It depends on the type of food you are making, personal pref. etc. Like others have said, for certain cuisines I would definetely keep the skin. Otherwise:

Been making sushi quite regularly for years with various knives and techniques.... but wasn't completely happy with my approach.

At some point decided to take formal course in Tokyo (you could easily get one on a youtube video or from a book), one of the modules was just about breaking down fish, different types and sizes, it was all about 165 deba (I believe the master Chef was using a smaller one) and 270mm traditional yanagiba.

Since then its all I use (never looked back), you can do everything with those two knives. Short answer, a good yanagi, my suggestion is a 270mm yanagiba (Masamoto is my go to knife) from Korin or any of the other great sources referenced in this forum. You could easily use a suji the same way. When you are at korin ask them about sharpening and have them check the OOTB sharpness. :yammer:

IMHO on the breakdown and technique (daveb said it first)

Mille, if that is what you want to do, I believe you are on the right track, once you've broken the fish down Japanese style, skin on board, pull and let the knife come between the skin and the protein virtually flush, And on certain fish, if you do it right you will leave some of the "shine" on the protein that is desired on the finished product, I have recently learned that that shine comes form "guanine crystals" that reflects light as a defense mechanism. Quite fascinating!

NOTE: sometimes you have to cut a small piece so you have enough space to get a grip.

Its what you see on certain types nigiri sushi. Its almost counter intuitive, sometimes all you need to do is just pull on the skin with little movement and the piece comes out intact then you can do what you wish, saute, sashimi, whatever... also it it very important thet your yanagiba is "scary" sharp. :knife:

It shows you did it consistently and closely wasting close to nothing. Takes time and practice. Very, very cool!