The Ultimate Fillet Knife?

[budrichard]

I have been follwing Phil's work for a few years and early this year wondered why I didn't have one of his fillet knives? http://www.seamountknifeworks.com/index.htm A call to Phil resulted in a pleasant conversation and an order for one of his fillet knives. Phil's fillet knives are very flexible allowing one to follow the contours of the fish rib cage which is the technique I perfer rather than using a rigid blade and cutting thourgh the rib bones as the Japanese do.

Phil recently delivered this 9" Punta Chivato in CPM 154, a new particle metalurgy steel which Phil has started to use and since I had no knives with this steel, why not? The Stag, Ironwood and stabalized wood handle complete the package along with an excellent sheath.

A fillet of Kona Kampachi was acquired and a quick stroke removed the skin quite nicely. As good as any fillet knife I have and the 9" blade is really appreciated for larger fish.

Phil says on his website, he is not presently taking orders but since he filled this order in less than a year, I wouldn't expect a problem with calling him and discussing your needs.

He is a Mechanical Engineer and quite knowledagble about steels and knifemaking.-Tonight its Yellowtail Terriyaki! -Dick

Edited November 28, 2007 by budrichard (log)

[UnConundrum]

I've been wanting one of his knives for some time. I wrote him in the Summer and he told me to check back in the Winter.... Wrote him about a month ago with no response

[budrichard]

Call.

Phil prefers personal contact or at least that is my experience but he has answered my emails.-Dick

[_john]

can you fillet all types and sizes of fish with this knife? I only know the Japanese way of filleting with a deba for all fish. how do you use this knife?

[budrichard]

Instead of cutting along and through the rib cage leaving a section of rib cage to be removed after filleting, the blade is flexible and you follow the contours of the rib cage and never cut through any bones, effectively eliminating one step. A deba is a stiff unflexible blade resulting in the typical Japanese methods.

Of course with a fish like a salmon, you still have to remove the 'pin' bones.

As far as sizes go, for very small fish, a shorter blade would be better and for large fish like a tuna, a takobiki would be better but for reasonable sized whole fish, this is how I learned and the method i prefer.

BTW, I do have a deba from Takeda Hamono. -Dick

Edited December 8, 2007 by budrichard (log)

[D & R Sharpening]

That's a beauty of a knife. Congrats on scoring it!

--Dave--