Good fillet knives for fish? White River Knives and similar?

I fished salt water for years, the everyday fillet knives were Dexter Russell. They worked very well and are inexpensive. I used a set of ceramic sticks to keep them sharp and always washed good in fresh water. These were boat knives, anyone could use them, no big deal when they went overboard. I eventually had Phil Wilson make me a fillet knife in S30V, it was incredible. That was my knife, never used by anyone else under penalty of death.
 
Does anyone know what steel Marttini (aka Rapala) use in their knives? They call it European stainless which could mean the warm butter Victorinox uses in their SAKs or the German equivalent of 440A as used in most German kitchen knives in the Marttini's and Japanese stainless in the Rapala "Pro" folder I am looking at.

Anyone own or use one of these:
https://www.rapala.com/us_en/5-folding-fish-pro-fillet
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Benchmade's Fishcrafter series looks to be a really nice knife in Magnacut. There's a 7" and 9" version.
 
Good info so far.....
what are peoples thoughts on flex?

I have my thoughts, but I'd like to hear more.....

Me, I only fillet certain fish. Most of the the fish eat I clean.... Scale, heads off and gut.

so, I'm leaning towards a stiffer knife in the design I'm working out in my head.... I'm wondering IF there is a need for a nice Boning meat/Fish cleaning knife?
 
Crag the Brewer said:
Good info so far.....
what are peoples thoughts on flex?

I have my thoughts, but I'd like to hear more.....

Me, I only fillet certain fish. Most of the the fish eat I clean.... Scale, heads off and gut.

so, I'm leaning towards a stiffer knife in the design I'm working out in my head.... I'm wondering IF there is a need for a nice Boning meat/Fish cleaning knife?
Click to expand...
I personally don't like flex in a knife. I was a butcher for almost 30 years and fileted a lot of fish. I never felt the need for a flexible knife to get the maximum yield from the fish.
 
1911bphil said:
I personally don't like flex in a knife. I was a butcher for almost 30 years and fileted a lot of fish. I never felt the need for a flexible knife to get the maximum yield from the fish.
Click to expand...
My one Grandfather was a professional butcher too.... I don't have any of His knives, but I remember he carved wooden figurines a lot, and kinda taught me to carve as a kid....
then I stopped.

I'm leaning towards stiffer for my first one
 
On flex….. one can fillet the meat off a fish with just about any knife. If you take your time.
The fillet knife is built for speed.
Stiff or flexible the meat will come off the rack.

But where the flexible knife really shines is taking the skin off of the cut fillet. The slightly ’bent’ will stay flat on the cutting board without any extra effort.

I started with a Western boning knife in the 70’s. After that was stolen on a head boat I got a Schrade Steelhead and could be quite happy with that.
They don’t dull quickly since I’m only cutting (fish) meat.

IMG_2086.jpg


Case, Murphy, Elgin/orvis, Schrade Steelhead & Helle. There’s also a Dozier fillet that didn’t make the photo.
 
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