fillet knife blade's geometry?

Most fishermen I know here use one with a cord on it. The others use Rapala like this:

______________________________ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) snipped-for-privacy@7cox.net

Fillet knives seem to be similar to flexible boning knives. I am not sure exactly what the best shape is. They need to be flexible so they can be held flat against the cutting board to remove the skin, relatively narrow (which mine isn't particularly) to turn the corner from cutting down to the backbone to cutting along the backbone, and able to cut rib bones or other bones and scales. And do all that for as many fish as possible before needing sharpening.

The buck fillet knife isn't bad.

I'll put some wood handles on what I got with epoxy or gorilla glue. If I need to work on the shape or thickness and they are in the way, then removal and redoing won't be a big chore. I even considered just wrapping with tape, prison style.

del

15 degrees at the edge and thin enough to that point that the 15 is not a huge transition from body to edge. In other words if you are not carefullly holding 15 degrees your abrasives will scratch the rest of the blade.

Most of the ones in the stores, particularly the Rapala, are junk.

A filet knife should be thin, quite flexible, and made of steel that will take a keen edge, and retain it while cutting thru bones etc. The Rapala is made of soft stainless that won't even take a good edge, much less hold one.

A power hacksaw blade should be very good stock for making a filet knife.

FIskars makes a decent filet knife that isn't too pricey.

Anything by Wusthof Trident is excellent, pricey and worth it.

That isn't a concern. That stuff is so hard I can hardly shape it. And a few scratches don't bother me. I am more interested in shaping, etc.

That's exactly the sort of insight/opinion we're looking for! :)

Anyone else got an opinion? :)

Alvin in AZ

Hi Alvin, I'm wondering if a full hard power hacksaw blade might be a bit too stiff to make a good fillet knife, I had my best results using the spring steel body material of a bi-metal bandsaw blade,, (the part you have left after grinding the high speed steel teeth off) The 1 1/2 X .042 blades seemed to work the best for me for full size fillet knives and the 1 1/4 X .035 blades worked real good for making specialty blades for removing the Y bones from nothern pike and muskies.

Bear in MN

I'll second that, I had a couple of power hacksaw blades once apon a time :-) After several hours and burnt fingers plus a worn out grinding wheel, I didn't have much to show for it. I would go for the spring steel. Here is a page from a local knife firm and their fillet knives