I keep several knives on my fishing boat, each with a rather specific job. No mechanic attacks an engine repair with only a handful of tools; no fishing boat operator should shove a knife in his pocket to handle all the needed cutting chores that will or might crop up on a day afloat.
When ancient humans first climbed out of the trees or left their caves and picked up a tool to make their lives easier, one of the first things they used was a knife. Of course it wasn’t much like a Bowie knife or a folding lock-back. It probably looked suspiciously like a clam shell or a sharp edged rock. Regardless, it sure beat chewing things in two with teeth or simply trying to pull things apart with strong fingers.
Ever since then, mankind has been trying to improve this ancient tool. Doubtless one of the early improvements was fashioning a handle to grip the knife to keep the blade (or clamshell) from slipping or slicing the user’s fingers while that chunk of mastodon was being rendered into serving sized portions.
Take a look at a modern knife. Is it that much different? Sure the blade might be made from a special steel alloy or ceramic—a man-made version of sharp stone. Perhaps the handle end is made with a rubberized polymer instead of wood, bone or rawhide wraps—maybe not. Plenty of modern knives still use wood, bone or rawhide on their handles.
Different or not, I keep several knives on my fishing boat, each with a rather specific job. No mechanic attacks an engine repair with only a handful of tools; no fishing boat operator should shove a knife in his pocket to handle all the needed cutting chores that will or might crop up on a day afloat.
POCKET KNIFE
Shove a knife in my pocket? Unless I’m flying on an airplane and subject to a TSA search, there will be a folding knife—a pocket knife—in my right hand pants pocket. Some people are wedded to their cell phone; I’m wedded to my pocket knife and have been since long before it became illegal to fly the friendly skies carrying a Barlow knife.
I’ve actually owned several Barlow knives, a folding knife which dates back to the 1700s. George Washington carried one. Why not? It fit almost all the criteria I deem important.
A pocket knife should be medium in size. A tiny penknife may fit the pocket more unobtrusively, but it’s going to be too small for many of the jobs I’ll ask it to perform. A big folding lock-back hunting knife will certainly fit in a pocket, but there’s a reason most come with a belt sheath. They are too big and may be oversized for delicate tasks.
A pocket knife should have a pointy tip. These are “jack of all trades” tool and depending on the task at hand, a dagger-like tip may be as important as a sharp blade.
The knife in my pocket right now is a Case Tribal Lock. I chose it because of the above criteria and others. First, you can’t beat the quality. Case knives date back to 1889 and there are knives they made over a century ago, still in every day use.
The CTL is a bit longer than other pocket knives I’ve used but it makes up for it by being thinner and less bulky since it’s a single blade model. I don’t notice it’s in my pocket unless I stick my hand in there to check for it.
On my boat, the 3-plus-inch blade is more appropriate for most of the chores it’s called to do. An example is the time I managed to snap the blade off the fillet knife I was using and finished filleting a 20-pound king salmon with the pocket knife.
It’s available in several handle types and colors. I chose the yellow synthetic handle for only one reason. It’s easily visible. Most of my past pocket knives became knives of the past because I used them, laid them down and walked away. Then they walked away (or were helped.)
I do like the fact the Tribal Lock has a blade that locks open. I like more the “un-locking” procedure is simple and easy. I’ve used non-locking folding knives hundreds of times with scant few incidents or close calls, but with a blade as sharp as this, I don’t want to experience the first time.
BACK UP BLADE
I actually have a second “pocket knife” on the boat I keep clipped on the coffee cup holder at the helm. I don’t normally like a pocket knife with one of those spring clips on the handle to secure it to a belt or onto the edge of a pocket. The clip, however, keeps it in place on the cup holder and when it happens I have both hands full of something and I need a knife, I know it’s there. “Somebody grab the knife hanging on the cup holder on the dashboard, please,” I’ll say. In a few seconds, I have it in hand without having to open boxes, sort through junk in the glove compartment or try to fish out the knife in my pocket.
FILLET KNIVES
I have two conventional fillet knives in my box of fish cleaning knives. Both are big, long knives, one a 9-inch, wood handled Rapala Fish ‘n Fillet knife (www.rapala.com) the other is a 9.5-inch Reel-Flex knife made by Outdoor Edge. (www.outdooredge.com) The difference in the two (other than the rubber-like TPE handle on the Reel-Flex) is the flexibility in the steel of the blade. The Rapala blade is on the stiffer side of flexible while the Reel-Flex’s blade bends more than most knives I’ve sampled. The nature of the flex is different in each model, as well. The Rapala blade flexes similarly to a fast tip fishing rod. It’s rather stiff up by the handle and flexes more easily closer to the tip. The flex in Outdoor Edge model is more parabolic with a similar flex the length of the blade.
Flex in a fillet knife is important. Try butchering a fish with a non-flexible butcher knife sometime and you’ll understand better than I can describe. The flex helps the fish cleaner guide the knife up, down, in and out along the backbone and around fins getting the maximum amount of meat off the skeleton.
How much flex a person needs in a fillet knife blade is a combination of personal preference and what the person gets used to using. When I’m making skin-on salmon fillets and using the fillet knife to clip through the rib bones when cutting off the slabs I prefer the stiffer flex of the Fish ‘n Fillet.
When I am making skin-off fillets, however on salmon, trout or walleyes, I prefer the Reel-Flex. The full length flex helps me slide the blade between the meat and skin along the full length of the slab. After I’ve cut the fillets off steelhead, walleye or lake trout using an electric knife, I switch to the Reel-Flex when peeling out the rib cages.
ELECTRIC KNIFE
Electric knife? I used to be a manual knife purest and viewed fish cleaners who used electric knives as people who didn’t know how to sharpen (and keep sharp) their conventional knives. Besides, I always questioned the sanity of someone who would stand on a wet floor and plug a hand-held appliance into a 120V electrical outlet. An additional “besides” is I often clean fish in locations where there’s no electrical outlet.
I still think the above is partially true. However, I’m no longer a purest. I own a Rapala Lithiom Ion Cordless Fillet Knife.
There are two methods of cutting a fillet off a fish. One involves cutting over the ribcage, but not through the ribs, then carefully cutting around the ribs until the boneless fillet is freed from the fish. The second method (the one I normally use) is to cut through the rib bones, free the fillet, then trim the rib bones from the fillet.
On salmon, the “cut through the rib bones” method is easy. A sharp fillet knife will cut through those ribs with very little resistance—not so much on lake trout, steelhead or walleye. When I had a mixed batch of fish to fillet, I’d do the salmon first, then the trout and steelhead.
It’s the same amount of work, but the ribs on those big trout, walleyes and even the ribs on a middle-sized steely are almost steel-wire-tough. After each fish, I need to touch up the knife’s edge to keep it sharp. I do the easy fish first, the toughest get saved for last.
The changing fishery on Lake Michigan has made lake trout an increasingly important part of my catch and for a longer period during the season. “It may be time to give up those puritan knife opinions,” I thought and added “if there’s a battery powered option.”
There are several brands of rechargeable knives and after looking at online reviews of popular choices, I chose the Rapala Lithium-Ion Cordless model. My experience with rechargeable drills and other tools taught me those li-ion batteries are much superior to nickel-cadmium rechargeable power-packs of a few years ago. They are more powerful and last much longer.
I (mostly) have given up my electric fillet knife bias. There’s still great satisfaction in producing a perfect fillet with a good sharp knife and that’s what I still use for salmon and some other fish. When I have a load of lakers to cut up—or a whack of walleyes—out comes the electric. The battery is supposed to last 80 minutes and since I only use the electric knife to make the slab-off cuts, then switch to hand-powered knives for de-ribbing and trimming the fillets, I only recharge the Li-Ion power pack every four or five outings.
Though some people use their electric-blades for ribbing and skinning. Once I cut the fillets free from the carcass, I switch to a hand held knife to cut out the ribs and skin the fillet if desired.
STEAK KNIVES
More than 90% of the fish caught and kept on my boat are filleted. I, personally, and some of the people with whom I fish, enjoy a big salmon or lake trout cut into steaks instead of fillets for grilling. I keep a special knife in my fishing cleaning kit to facilitate the steak cutting process.
I’d rather clean an 8-inch bluegill with a 9-inch knife than face a 20+ salmon with a 6-inch blade. Outdoor Edge makes a nifty kit containing several sizes.
First, I cut open the belly and remove the innards with a fillet knife. Then, I cut off inch or thicker steaks like lopping off hefty chunks from a tube of salami, start-ing at the head and working towards the tail.
I first use a fillet knife to cut down to the back bone, then I lay down the fillet blade and switch to an 8-inch, serrated bread knife I bought at Walmart for less than 10-bucks. It may be a bread knife but it makes a great bone saw for fish and saws through most big laker or king salmon spines with just a few strokes. Then, switching back to the fillet knife, I cut the rest of the way through the fish and trim up the steak. The same procedure using just the fillet knife would be harder, maybe impossible and dull the best blade quickly.
When I have someone with me who wants to save the fish heads for Asian soup recipes (or when Uncle Ernie want’s some for raccoon bait on his trap line) out comes the serrated knife again. Save that fillet knife for what it’s designed to do—fillet fish. Save the pocket knife for what it’s designed to do—almost anything!
LONG BLADES
I use long blades because I normally am cutting up fairly good-sized fish. When I’m filleting panfish, I switch to shorter versions. When purchasing a fillet knife, err on buying something longer than you need it. I’d rather clean an 8-inch bluegill with a 9-inch knife than face a 20+ salmon with a 6-inch blade. Outdoor Edge makes a nifty kit containing several sizes.
SHARPENERS
I’d rather have to clean a fish with a small, razor-sharp surgical scalpel than face a fish with a dull, appropriately sized knife. There is only one secret to having and keeping a fillet knife razor sharp—don’t let it get dull.
My brother is a butcher who cuts up pigs and cattle all day long, nicking bones, slicing meat, gristle and skin tougher than what’s found in any fish. You know his knife has to be sharp and stay sharp. What you probably don’t know is he doesn’t “sharpen” his knife all day long, most days.
What brother Russ has learned to do is keep the edge on his knife honed razor sharp by touching up the blade constantly, at least every few minutes, with a sharpening steel. A few strokes of the steel makes the blade as good as new (or better). In essence, he never lets his knife get dull and seldom has to sharpen it.
There is only one secret to having and keeping a fillet knife razor sharp—don’t let it get dull.
When you are cutting up walleyes, trout, steelhead or other fish with tough, hard bones, get that knife sharp, then keep it sharp with a steel. Make it a habit.
I now have a steel in my fish cleaning kit and only sharpen my knives every few weeks or after Uncle Ernie borrows a knife and doesn’t steel the knife after every fish or two or decides to use it to chop off fish heads to use for raccoon trapping bait.
When I do have to sharpen a knife I rely on a variety of tools. None are perfect. Some do a great job, but are cumbersome. Some are highly portable, but don’t do quick or satisfactory job.
I use a rechargeable battery powered sharpener to absolutely return my knives to “as new” condition. I could make a razor from a butter knife with it. This sharpener from Smith’s Consumer Products (www. smithsproducts.com) has a guide to hold the knives at a precise angle and relies on a power-driven, abrasive belt to do the sharpening.
To sharpen a butter knife, start with the coarse belt, then switch to the medium grit belt and finish with the 600 grit fine belt. Most fillet knives that haven’t been abused can be sharpened and touched up with just the fine grit belt but if your Uncle Ernie borrowed the blade, you may need the medium grit first, then polish it smooth. The belts interchange in seconds.
I keep a diamond coated “steel” from EZE Lap Diamond Products (www.eze-lap. com) in my knife cleaning kit. If, after steeling my knife with a conventional steel (or I’ve grabbed it away from Uncle Ernie) and the steel doesn’t put the edge back to perfection, the diamond coated steel will hone the blade easily, quickly and put it back to a razor edge.
Both Rapala and Smith’s make handy little ceramic finger-held sharpeners. The Outdoor Edge, Reel-Flex Pak includes a similar one. I carry these little tools when I’m traveling or in a situation when I don’t have access to my other sharpening tools. On a mostly sharp knife, a few strokes through the groove will improve the edge measurably. On a mostly dull knife, a dozen or more strokes might make it at least serviceable until you can get it to a “real” sharpener.
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1 comment
Great article on knives. After reading it, I might have to buy one or two more to add to my collection of over a dozen.