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Fish filet knife


mcohen

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Ideally, what's the best shape for a fish knife?

I've seen different variations from cimiter shaped knife where the spine and blade are curved like a sword to something like the boning knife where the spine remains straight.

The knife referenced is listed as boning knife by Forschner with a usable blade of 5". I would have to assume that the Microban treatment makes the knife attractive for commercial use but in reality the knife is too short to fillet and remove skin from all but the smallest fish. An 8" fillet is the shortest I use and sometimes even the 9" Wilson could be bigger depending on the fish size.-Dick

Just when I was all set to buy the Forschner Fat Guy recommended...

First of all, I'm kind of confused- it said it was 6" so how did you know it only had a usable blade of 5".

What's the most versatile size for a fish knife? If I'm going to fillet fishes like salmon, is the 6" still too small?

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One of the reasons for using a long knife for filleting is the same as using a long knife for making Sashimi. If you use only one slicing cut, you will not wind up with broken flesh where you have sawed backward and forward with the knife. You basically work along the length of the knife during the filleting motion. Sashimi sliced in this way will glow; if it is sawed it will look dull.

I use the same Victorinox blade referred to on 24Mar by FatGuy which is 20cm (8") and is sharp all the way along its length. I bought it after Testuya Wakada identified it as the blade he used in one of his cooking demonstrations.

See

for a demonstration of using the whole blade of a knife for filleting a salmon.

Nick Reynolds, aka "nickrey"

"The Internet is full of false information." Plato
My eG Foodblog

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See

for a demonstration of using the whole blade of a knife for filleting a salmon.

That guy's had some practice :smile: - is it significant that it's pink fish and Pink Floyd ?

What intrigues me about knife design is the how and the why. I look at the shape of the blade on a 'boning knife', or a 'butcher knife' or a 'carving knife' or 'filleting knife', and I look at the thickness of the blade along the spine and through the blade, and at how flexible the blade is. I can guess, but no one's saying "this is designed this way because xxx". The marketing bumff all seems to be written by (for ?) know-nothings.

I have some faith in the designer of my own knives, but it would be nice to know some of the thought behind the designs. I like my flexible fish filleting knife because (1) it's good for getting the blade down under a fillet for skinning it, (2) I guess it's easier to bring a flexible blade back on line if the blade starts to wander during a cut, and (3) it's sharp as get out.

I have a 'boning knife' too. It's much stiffer than the filleting knife, with a thicker blade, a less aggressive cutting angle and a rougher finish on the cutting edge.

When it comes to the butcher knife, that's a very distinctive shape, but why is it that way ? For breaking down carcasses is my guess - where you need to reach in deep and be able to make a slicing cut with the tip of the knife. But what am I missing ?

Edited by Blether (log)

QUIET!  People are trying to pontificate.

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I use the same Victorinox blade referred to on 24Mar by FatGuy which is 20cm (8") and is sharp all the way along its length. I bought it after Testuya Wakada identified it as the blade he used in one of his cooking demonstrations.

The weird thing is that I googled Testuya Wakada and knife, and I guess he's signed some deal with Mac knives because he's quoted as saying, "It (Mac)is the only brand of knife I will use in the kitchen." And, given his japanese heritage, you'd think he would have used the japanese fish fillet knives as discussed previously in this thread.

But, I'm still curious about the Victorniox blade. Under the category of fillet/fishing knives, Victorniox mades quite a number of different knives with different shapes. By now, you'd think there would be some type of consensus on the best shape for a knife to fillet a fish with.

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  • 9 months later...

But man do these fishmarket guys do a lot of fish per hour with those cheap Forschner knives, stopping every few minutes to hone them on the steel and sharpening them daily on a grindstone.

How sharp are their fish knives?

I'm reading Bourdain's Medium Raw, and one of the essays was about Justo Thomas, the fish butcher at Le Bernedain. Thomas is so good and so efficeint that when he's on vacation, it takes 3 sous chefs to do the same amount of work. You might have also seen him on last week's Top Chef episdoe, where he broke down and filleted a fish, and then later judged how fast the contestants could break down 2 fishes in 10 minutes.

And, in the essay, Thomas makes a point that he always uses a dull fish knife to break down fish. Does anybody do this?

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For certain things, yes. A dull knife is perfect for stripping the skin off of salmon sides, where the knife acts more like a wedge than a sharp edge. And for fileting sides of salmon off of whole salmon--however I need a sharp knife for removing the "rib cage" off of the sides once they are separted from the carcass.

On a completely different topic I keep a dull beast of a Henckels around to chop couverture...

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I have hard time believing that anyone would make a point of using a dull knife to fillet fish?

On another note, fillet knives and boning knives have a similar shape and may look the same but boning knives are usually stiff to work around the contours of bones whereas fillet knives are flexible to flex over the contours of a fish rib cage. If you remove the ribcage with the fillet from most fish and then remove the ribcage you are wasting time and effort because with the correct knife only the flesh is removed and the rest of the fish is left intact in one piece after the two fillets are removed minus the skin of course.-Dick

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  • 5 months later...

I've watched a number of professionals do this, and the ones who aren't sushi chefs have mostly used cheap Forschner/Victorinox knives. The blue-handled 6" Microban flexible fillet knife seems to be an industry favorite and is available for between US$15 and $20 depending on the merchant.

Other than the special blue handle, is that the same Victorinox knife as this?

http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-47513-6-Inch-Boning-Fibrox/dp/B000QCNJ3C

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