Recently I started branching out as far as hobbies go. Found my Grandpas fishing gear and decided I would start getting out to do some fishin. Been hitting the pier and local lakes and even picked up a crab hoop net to get me some bugs!
I need a decent all around knife the is ideally fixed blade, and metal/plastic/delrin etc any hard handle thats not absorbent. I am also looking for any kind of filet knife, both being pretty budget.
Someone got personal experience here :bigsmile:
The Swedish knives are among the best filet knives. Locally you can find them in Sporting Goods stores for a $20. Mora has some that are very good. You need to have good sharpening techniques to keep them sharp. Something like a Chicago Cutlery boning knife is about the same blade shape.
Mora make several fishing knives:
I don’t think you can find better for the price. They’re really cheap, good grip with wet hands, easy to sharpen.
I love my mora, grip is super comfortable! They use 12c27 stainless in their stainless blades which is a midgrade steel, of the shaving sort. I get polished edges very easily with it. Which is a characteristic I noticed when sharpening 8cr13mov kershaw blades vs the moras.
Fellow socal phisherman here! Going to silverwood tomorrow to slay me some trout n cats.
Fish on bro!
I have three knives with me when I fish .
An old stainless partially serrated folder to cut bait, scrape or chisel stuff . My EDC , for cutting line and leader material , and a filet knife , for filet-and-release .
Knives! My favorite thing! If just one knife would do everything I wanted, that would be just the right number. But no, it’s worse than lights. I’ll go with Chloe and Sintro and expand a little.
Add BensBackwoods to the better sellers. I have good luck both with Rageweed Forge and Bens. One great little knife you have to check out is this one:
http://www.bensbackwoods.com/marttiini-mn10-inox-stainless-little-classic/ as a super easy to carry general purpose cutter.
I love the Inox steel, seems to take an edge better than the 12c27 on the Moras, dunno why. (note we are talking Scandi zero-grinds, apples to apples) The average Moras are great also - just purchased this one #11201: The Craftline Allround as the first stainless of that style, our other is a carbon blade of the Mora Clipper. Don’t know if any are still available, unless maybe eBay. I love the carbon steel for, well everything stainless isn’t, including ease of getting a slicing edge, but if corrosion is an issue you might want to stay stainless.
Regarding fishing fillet knives - here in MN we get everything from sub- 1 lb panfish and Perch, to 5 lb Northern Pike, and 3 lb Large Mouth Bass into the skillet (anything bigger gets to live another day) so the knives are both traditionally an functionally suited to these. I have gradually migrated from the skinny tapered blades to less flexable wider blades with better results. (Wider blades glide along the backbone better for me, less digging in) IMO I would stay away from the very very popular Normark or Marttinni fillet. The steel is way to soft, I’ve been told something around 50 HRC. Even with an Edge Pro I have issues with getting a bevel angle that will hold up to a grapefruit. I kid you not. (grapefruit is corrosive and the skins are abrasive) I put them aside to fillet fish in favor of my Mora Classic styled laminated 6 in blade. Carbon inside about 60-something HRC and murdeously sharp. (but can chip just a tiny bit on beef bones so not great for butchering) The Classic suffers from a handle not well suited for slippery fish slime and field dressing game.
I have a Buck 7 in fillet knife that does not have the tapered blade that works well, but the steel is soft like the Marttinni fillet knives so difficult to get and keep any kind of edge.
So, in a nutshell - Normark / Marttinni fillet knives are out, so is the need for a flexible blade, especially if it’s soft steel. Can’t sharpen them for a dam. Mora and Marttini scandi blades are in for great general purpose. I like the look of this one #11819: The Fishing Comfort 150 from Ragweed, but would hate the scaler back edge. Note for slicers thinner blades are better. Heavy use camp knives thicker can be better, but won’t slice through food as easily. Opinel brand has as big a cult as Mora, but I have no experience with them. We even have a large Cold Steel (1095 carbon) about 9 in long that fillets panfish and Bass both like crazy, but is a little large to get under the rib bones.
Sharpening is a whole ’nother beast. I love Scandi zero-grind because I can just lay the bevel flat on sandpaper and go to town - so wider bevels are easier for me to keep a steady freehand angle. Else I really need a guided sharpener like Edge Pro.
Caveat: I don’t know a lot, since it only took a paragraph or two to exhaust me, but almost all my difficulties with knives has been because of either soft steel or sharpening stones that don’t cut fast enough so I just keep wearing the blade down. There is no exception to getting the right quality (price is not actually the biggest factor) and understanding how to use them.
Abitdark, awesome post. Thank you so much for sharing your info on fishing knives!
Awesome posts in here. I think I can make an educated decision.
Thanks abitdark, great info! I read it back a few times to sink in too lol
I tend to want to keep things simple….these types of tasks are easily handled by professional kitchen cutlery, or ie., butcher knives.
I’ve made a few knives out of carbon with a custom designed optimized shape that I found most useful so that I could get exactly what I wanted.
They are awesome, and I was very impressed with myself, until I found a Forschner sheepsfoot style slicer blade in nearly the same configuration and in various lengths with a molded handle for $20.
Professional Forschner knives are taper ground and have good steel so they cut well.
7” Blade
8” Blade
They can do just about everything and can be easily kept sharp with a steel.
It slices…it dices…
From what I have read on Knifeforums and KitchenKnifeForms (the BLF / CPF style Hatfields and McCoys, sheesh) Forschner is a workhorse of the professional line cooks where no one worries about the knife. My only comment would be to get a blade with a pointy tip so you can both poke into the fish and slice up through the skin and push scales aside instead of trying to push your blade under the scales from the outside which can be very hard on the edge.
Maybe the Forschner Butcher, Breaking, Black Fibrox, 8 in. Item Number: VN40537-BB2-67 at the link provided by Top Cat.
BTW check out Knifeforums and KitchenKnifeForms for more than you ever wanted to know, or spend, on kitchen knives, other styes, sharpening stones and gadgets. There is some real eye candy there.