North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

cheap one from big w with maroon handle....better than swibo...soft blade easy to put an edge back on it...cheap as chips love it. came with a gammon glove lol

Rapala for me, happy with it so far.
Cant believe that Martini did not get a mention, I used a mates once and it was an awesome knife.

I'm with Matty A at the moment, I recently purchased a Buck Silver Creek 6 inch and it's on the money for me. I snagged it on ebay for around $30, same at Alfreds - $80.

I had a Marttiini 9 inch model when living in Gove, teflon coated, bought it from Campbells Pro Tackle, it was also hard to beat.

Don't think it matters too much what kind of knife, they are all pretty good, but the best way to get a good fillet off anything that i've found is to put the fish in an icy brine for half an hour before you knock the slabs off. Makes it heaps easier and your fillets come off nice and clean.

I used to work on a shark/mackerel boat for over 6 years and we only used swibo- shark are tough on knives- we used to use big swibos on the macs to lop their heads of in one hit! Now I just own a 6inch swibo fillet knife- it has some nicks in the blade ,but that is from abuse not filleting.

Agree with Faulksy & Big Dan the Martiini are a good knife. Mine has had a hard life (Not excess fish, just me doing all the wrong things with it.) and still going strong.
I also have a cheap Shimano boning knife which does a great job too and easy to sharpen on a steel!

Got 1 of the Shimano jobs aswell which is not to bad, and have just got a Kershaw which
I liked the look of but haven't used it much as yet (lack of fish )

seano wrote:I used to work on a shark/mackerel boat for over 6 years and we only used swibo- shark are tough on knives- we used to use big swibos on the macs to lop their heads of in one hit! Now I just own a 6inch swibo fillet knife- it has some nicks in the blade ,but that is from abuse not filleting.

Agree with seano I did the shark mackerel fishing thing and the long 9inch swibo steak kinfe was go for trunking. For filleting I still have a couple of Dexter Russel boning knives left over from the days in the buffalo sheds.

Hey Grumpy, are the Dexter Russel knives the wooden handled Green river knives??

I had a 6inch skinner from them it was a fantastic knife, very easy to sharpen and kept its edge very well.. only don't have it because it was flogged..

muntzy wrote:Agree with Faulksy & Big Dan the Martiini are a good knife. Mine has had a hard life (Not excess fish, just me doing all the wrong things with it.) and still going strong.
I also have a cheap Shimano boning knife which does a great job too and easy to sharpen on a steel!

From what I have been taught true steels dont sharpen knives they only straighten em up as they get super thin at the sharp edge which is like a bur in reality.
Last visit the father in law ( ex butcher and commercial line fisherman) blew us away skinning macks and blue salmon with absolute ease, using a knife steeled down one side only, after sharpenning on the stone of course. Because the burr layed over it was actually quite difficuly to go out through the skin in that direction as opposed to a true edge where both sides of the blade are steeled after sharpening. You can get Diamond and ceramic steels but they are cutting material off the blade as does a stone, a steel removes almost nothing, it just straightens the edge, like mantainance after every couple of fish then sharpen every couple of sessions. A good steel should not have any ridges or pattern on it at all , and be almost smooth to the tough, ours have come from butchers wholesalers.

troamaru wrote:Hey Grumpy, are the Dexter Russel knives the wooden handled Green river knives??

I had a 6inch skinner from them it was a fantastic knife, very easy to sharpen and kept its edge very well.. only don't have it because it was flogged..

No mate I used the Green Rivers Skinning and Boning knives (they are black steel) when I worked on the slaughter floors before progressing to the Boning Rooms in the airconditioning. We had to stop using the Green rivers back then because at that time they only came in wooden handle and export standards did not allow them, although I'm sure I've seen them in a plastic handle verson and still black steel.

The Dexter Russel boning knives we used were white plastic handles with stainless blades. They are a good knife better than the Swibo in that model, the Swibo's used to snap off right at the handle, mind you ripping thru buffalo all day was enough to bust up the best of them.

Cheers

We had a couple of old wooden handled Green River knives at Fraser Island years ago big suckers say 12 -13 inch blades left over from his butchering days all gone now though. I think one got lost over the side letting some light into a big tiger.

[quote]From what I have been taught true steels dont sharpen knives they only straighten em up as they get super thin at the sharp edge which is like a bur in reality.
Last visit the father in law ( ex butcher and commercial line fisherman) blew us away skinning macks and blue salmon with absolute ease, using a knife steeled down one side only, after sharpenning on the stone of course. Because the burr layed over it was actually quite difficuly to go out through the skin in that direction as opposed to a true edge where both sides of the blade are steeled after sharpening. You can get Diamond and ceramic steels but they are cutting material off the blade as does a stone, a steel removes almost nothing, it just straightens the edge, like mantainance after every couple of fish then sharpen every couple of sessions. A good steel should not have any ridges or pattern on it at all , and be almost smooth to the tough, ours have come from butchers wholesalers./quote]

you've got a handle on it AM.

Nothing makes me laugh more than people taking an OK knife, ripping it across a coarse steel with all their might...goodbye honed blade.

Steels arent for sharpening, they are for realigning the fine edge on your knife which inevitably rolls over with use. Walk around most meatworks and you will see plenty of guys use chrome steels...absolutely no ridge in the steel at all.
Its a real dark art keeping a knife sharp. You can pay $500 for a steel that is rubbish, or sometimes a $10 steel can be brilliant. I once had a white handled dickoron $20 steel that I emery papered back to smooth that was legendary in the sheds I used to work in. This thing was incredible for rebalancing a knife...hard to explain.
When I quit the meat game, I had that many blokes wanted to buy it, sold it to the top bidder for $700 (in 1997)

You could learn knife science all your life I reckon and still there would be a library worth of stuff you wouldnt know.

Kevin Kevinson wrote:

When I quit the meat game, I had that many blokes wanted to buy it, sold it to the top bidder for $700 (in 1997)

You could learn knife science all your life I reckon and still there would be a library worth of stuff you wouldnt know.

How true you are old son. When I was in the game (70's-80's) we used to buy rat tail files (the new files nowadays are c..ap) and wear them back on an old sharpening stone first before different grades of emery paper up and down (just like you were cranking off when you were a kid ) until they were dead smooth. Then over night we would hang them in a bottle (Darwin Stubbies were good) with about half an inch of Hydrochloric acid in it to put the most minuet pits in it. A good steel was well worth any amount when you had to rip into buffalo all day.

Nowadays it's one of them cheap diamond steels that doesn't rust, but like KK said you don't rip into it just go as gentle as possible.

Cheers

now we are swapping some good abbies stories grumpy.

we had one bloke Mook-eye who was an absolute wizard with knives.

to impress the young blokes just learning knifework, he would take their dulled knife and 'steel' it on one of the stainless pipes and put and edge back on it! Another bloke I know used to use a raw bit of chrome and get an amazing edge on it.

never done buff, but done plenty of time on 300days GF beef as big as buffs, and with rock hard fat because the Japs used to almost freeze em before boning. so many blokes used to break down it was ridiculous. doesnt matter how sharp your knife is then.

Kevin Kevinson wrote:now we are swapping some good abbies stories grumpy.

never done buff, but done plenty of time on 300days GF beef as big as buffs, and with rock hard fat because the Japs used to almost freeze em before boning. so many blokes used to break down it was ridiculous. doesnt matter how sharp your knife is then.

Know exactly where you are coming from KK with the fat we used to hate Mondays after the carcasses had been hanging in the chiller the extra day making the fat solid as!

At Point Stuart we never got to touch GF beef but we diid heaps of Buff from places like Flora (Prime area between Shady and Tommy cut) Wagit (another place where they are monsters and fat) these monsters used to go 10/12 cartons per beast. I can remember getting a carton (27kg) of meat from the neck from just one side very often.

All but memories finish in the meat works by 12/1 o'clock and on the water at Shady by 2, home by 5 with 40/50 Barra tallied up
Cheers