A Sport Fisherman’s best friend- a sharp filet knife!
A Sport Fisherman’s best friend- a sharp filet knife!
After a good day at sea, and coming home with your prized catch, the next step you should do is preparing your fish. However, for many anglers, preparing a catch is a gruesome task because not only can it be difficult especially to beginners but can also take time. Truth is, with the proper technique, preparing a catch should be one of the most satisfying parts of the whole fishing expedition. In this endeavor, the importance of a sharp fillet knife cannot be gainsaid since it makes fish preparation not only faster but more effective. The secret then to the best fillet is keeping the fillet knife always sharp for perfect use every time.
Why Sharpen Your Knife?
Using a blunt knife will not only make your task of preparing your task more difficult, it will also make your work unsightly since the cuts you would make are not clean. More importantly, using an unsharpened knife will only open you to accidents as you might apply too much pressure and inadvertently cut something other than fish meat. Learning how to sharpen your own knife will also help you economize, and prevent you from buying knife after knife whenever its edge blunts.
Sharpening Tips
When you sharpen your knife with a quality stone, the idea is to remove the metal from the edge to form a new edge. At a 20-degree angle and lubricated with water or oil, you could draw the blade around the stone in a circular pattern or across and down. Because friction against the stone causes the knife to have a feathered edge, you also need to hone it or straighten the roughened edge.
Maintaining Sharpness
Even though you regularly sharpen your fillet knife, its sharpness still depends on certain factors. If you want a sturdier knife, choose one made of raw steel as stainless steel, although may be easier to sharpen, dulls more easily.
The proper use and storage of fillet knives also lengthens their life spans. When using your fillet knife, remember that it “fillets” not “cuts”. Avoid exerting too much force on the fish meat, but simply allow the knife to slice smoothly through flesh. Also don’t use it on any other meat or thing but only fish. Lastly, after using, wash and dry it thoroughly, always keeping it safe in a clean, dry place after use every time.
Filleting a fish is a task that many anglers detest because it is “difficult”. Indeed, filleting a fish could be difficult but it wouldn’t be so with a few tricks. If it is your first time to fillet a fish, use a sharp fillet knife – that is the secret of easy fish filleting. Compare to other methods of cutting, filleting requires only minimum force and pressure because the idea is only to let the knife slice through the meat. A sharp knife then would make this task easier as it would be effortless to guide and manipulate.