Recommend a GOOD filet knife.

[Uncle Matt]

Red Top sells a cheaper hand held unit that my buddy picked up two weeks ago. An occasional swipe with the knife between fish is all it took. It doesn't take much.

[toddonbi]

most important is a blade that is high carbon stainless steel, most company's have them available like this for short money. not steel, not stainless...high carbon stainless steel. it'll hold a point longer and you don't have the usual dullness or uselessness of most crap knives. If you find that you are resharpening alot it's a bad blade or you're sawing, let the knife do the work and it should be almost effortless.

[redlite]

Another big tip is that after you fillet and wash the knife, let it dry then spread a dab of cooking oil on the blade to keep it from rusting.

[NIB]

the white handle dexters are stainless the stay nice an shinny an keep a pretty good edge they are harder to sharpen the wood hanle models are carbon steel easier to get a edge an cut better imho.they will tarnish after a few uses.The trick to not cutting urself is to always use a sharp knife dull blades cut the user i have a chefs chioce sharpener but i mostly use a hand held butterfly type thing . everytime i fillet.Get a sheeth

[Mr. Sandman]

Wow..I have a load of different fillet knifes and and here is my take...


1) Those ultra-shiny really nice high-end "fillet" knifes you see in the cooking stores should be left in the kitchen for touch up work just before the fish hits the grill IMO. Don't bring them on-board.

2) Dexter-Russell is the way to go for working knife. Get one of those inexpensive sharpeners and make a few swipes after each fish and it goes like butter. As mentioned above they come in wood and plasitic handle. I have both and they work just as NIB mentioned above. The plastic knife is ss and the wood is carbon. For most use the SS is good enough but it you like a really sharp knife and don't mind touching it up frequently to stay that way and don't mind a "seasoned" (rusty looking) blade, go with the stofter carbon blade. Otherwise get the SS blade it looks more sanitary and it keeps a good edge.

Most knife pro's tell you those cheap swipe type sharpeners ruin the edge...I can tell you they work great and I get YEARS out of the blade before discarding it and for 20 bucks it is a bargain! I can make a few passes with a $10 sharpener and it is like a razor. When it stops working you can even reverse the sharpening blades and easily get a few years out of this. Avoid those electric sharpeners if you can they really chew up a lot of steel.

[spence]

Originally Posted by Mr. Sandman

Wow..I have a load of different fillet knifes and and Avoid those electric sharpeners if you can they really chew up a lot of steel.

Unless it's a quality unit. I even sharpen carbon steel chef's knives on mine with no issues...

-spence

[Steve K]

The problem with many of the electric sharpeners is that they heat the blade too much and ruin the temper. I don't know if the electric Chef's Choice models do this but the ones on the back of electric can openers do. I have the hand held chef's choice sharpener that I only use for very dull blades. On my high quality carbon steel knives I use a steel on them everytime I use them and I have not yet had to sharpen them. If I do, I will have it done professionally. Carbon steel knives are definitely better except when they are subjected to saltwater environments where they easily corrode.