Western style fillet knives

Just curious, does anyone use these? If not what do you use for fish like lake trout, smaller cat fish, etc?

Barmoley said:

Just curious, does anyone use these? If not what do you use for fish like lake trout, smaller cat fish, etc?

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I use a stiff boning knife to fillet fish. But for trout I will use pretty much anything as I don't fillet them but gut them and roast them whole. The boning knife I use is just a cheap Victorinox. Otherwise I will simply use a petty. Ether seems to work fine for river/lake fish such as trout, cat, crappie, walleye and whatever else I catch.

I process a lot of lakers during the summer fishing season and have been using a 10" flexible Victorinox fillet knife for a long time with no issues or complaints. For larger trouts I wish the blade wasn't as flexible as it would make skinning the fillets easier but I've started using my 270mm yanagiba for that and it's a lot easier to get right down between the skin and meat without leaving any meat behind. I plan on getting a wa-deba soon though so I can fillet/skin/chop though backbone if I want to cut my catch into steaks all with a single knife.

Edit: well my only true gripe with the stamped SS flexible western fillet knives is that the edge his fades so quick after processing a livewell full of fish, as if all those little rib bones dull the edge quickly. I haven't used a flexible fillet knife of "high" quality steel however.

A number of years ago I was filteting everything with a carbon steel 6-inch Dexter boning knife. I starting catching larger salt water fish so I switched to a 7-inch blade Swedish Frosts popular on the local commercial fishing boats. The stainless steel in that blade held a much better edge than the carbon in the Dexter. That led me to switch to a 6-inch flex F. Dick boning knife for smaller fish. The Frosts and the F. Dick have a lot of years and lot of fish on them now. I'm happy with both.

So it sounds like the flexibility of the blade is not much of a benefit in general. I wonder why western fish knives are flexible, but Japanese are not.

Barmoley said:

So it sounds like the flexibility of the blade is not much of a benefit in general. I wonder why western fish knives are flexible, but Japanese are not.

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I agree, I never really understood the need for a very flexible blade in a fillet knife

Would you say that if going with western style knife one is better off with stiffer, narrow boning knife rather than the more flexible filleting one?

I use a cheap Dexter with some flex in the blade. Not one of those crazy flexible types some people use solely for fish, but in the middle.

I use mine to debone pork shoulders and cut up small fish. Eventually, I plan on upgrading to a nicer semi-flex boning/fillet, but for now it does the trick.

Barmoley said:

Would you say that if going with western style knife one is better off with stiffer, narrow boning knife rather than the more flexible filleting one?

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If I had to buy a western/European knife for filleting I would definitely go with a thin but stiffer boning knife like you said, provided I could find one longer than a standard boning knife.

The flex of a fillet knife does not bother me in use so much as I dislike it on the stones.

This an excellent point. If there is no real benefit in use, then why suffer difficulty in sharpening.

Barmoley said:

This an excellent point. If there is no real benefit in use, then why suffer difficulty in sharpening.

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I like the flex when dealing with an animal's scapula or hip bone. In regards to just doing fish, I could and indeed do without any flex when I use my 210mm yo deba for larger fish.

I have a 6" Marttiini similar to this. https://www.marttiini.fi/epages/Mar...jectPath=/Shops/MarttiiniShop/Products/620010 comfortable handle, 13C26 blade, holds an edge. I fillet fish maybe 10 times a year, spending more than $20 on a fillet knife really didn't make sense.

I use a Warthers boning knife in S35V. It holds an edge much better than Fallkniven VG10 fishing knives. The blade on the Warther is thin, but it has a very small amount of flex. They come in 5 or 6" lengths. I also have a longer boning knife by Bark River in S35V, but haven't tried it out yet. The Warther knives are good values. They call them "outdoor knives" and can be purchased with or without a sheath.
I recently got a North Arms bird and trout, and have been using it in the kitchen as a paring knife. It is S35V, but has been chipping, even though I use it on a wooden cutting board. Either the blade is too hard, or more likely, the edge is ground too thin. I put a micro bevel on it and will soone see how it does. They make a flexible fillet knife, but I can't recommend it until I see what is going on with the bird and trout. Fit and finish is very nice, and the knife is a good deal, if the micro bevel does the trick.
I prefer a boning knife style for fishing.

After replies here and talking to more people who are into fishing, it really sounds like most people who fillet fish a lot prefer stiff knives for this task. It is very puzzling to me why western filet knives are flexible....:scratchhead:

I think it may have something to do with skinning small fish or perhaps it's a design relic of a bygone era? (Ok, not that long ago)....Most the anglers over 50 I talk to all swear by their flexible fillet knives. But I agree with your assessment.

I typically use a Masahiro 160mm western-style boning knife. Definitely on the stiff side, but sharp and easy to control through the fillet.

From my days of pedaling filet knives to commercial fishermen, I found there are two schools of fish fileting. The stiff blade people cut straight through the ribs and deal with them later. This is the quickest way to clean fish in quantity but tends to leave more bones behind. The flexible knife people try to cut around the ribs but that is slower if you have tons of fish to process. Not being a commercial fisherman, I prefer a flexible blade and cutting around the ribs. Both of my favorite filet knives are flexible and I have fileted a few thousand fish with them.

I typically break fish down more than fillet it. We roast most of our fish. When I do fillet I do so in a odd manner and I suppose this is because I taught myself long before discovering youtube. More like removing the skin from a deer, I make an incision along the back from head to tail and pull the fillet up and slice again, and again until the meat is removed from the fish. What I see other people do is almost push the knife through the fish at a horizontal from head to tail. That simply does not work for me, particularly on tiny little panfish.

I guess I am just a bit weird.

For panfish like perch, crappies and small walleye I actually like using my honesuki and fillet them by slicing down the length of the spine along each side of dorsal fins and "unzipping" the meat from backbone with my thumb.

StonedEdge said:

For panfish like perch, crappies and small walleye I actually like using my honesuki and fillet them by slicing down the length of the spine along each side of dorsal fins and "unzipping" the meat from backbone with my thumb.

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That is more or less what I was trying to say. You happened to explain it better. I have never used a honesuki, though.

I understood what you were saying and thought it sounded very similar to what I've been taught to do with small fish like that. I personally think it's the best way of going about removing whole fillets from such small fish while leaving all the bones on the carcass. There's some super information YouTube vids, when I get to a desktop later I'll try and post a link for everyone.

That would be great, I think I do something similar, but want to make sure.

Here is ne example of this technique on a small yellow perch

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pjTlFwQb7D0

StonedEdge said:

Here is ne example of this technique on a small yellow perch

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pjTlFwQb7D0

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That is what I do if I am going to fry the whole fish. But I do something more similar to this for fillets.

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

I have seen other guys do this but rather than starting from the back they come in from the head and run down the length of the fish. I can not get that to work for me. I waste way too much meat that way.

That seems pretty close to the way I handle small fish too. A flexible blade is an advantage here.

Personally, I consider that the 'nail' style knives, with very thin profile and curvy tip heading upwards are for butchery filleting.
Knives with sujihiki like profile, are for fish. (Western style filleting, not as quick as deba filleting, but more perfectionist, if you know how to do it)