Electric Fellet Knife

[DaveO]

A Friend of mine asked me the other day what Electric Knife should she get her hubby for X-Mass.

I have a Mister Twister and the Rapala one. I for one do not like the Rapala one nearly as well,

Any other feed back?  She will be reading this thread....but most likely will not respond to anything for obvious reasons.

Thanks DaveO

[jigglestick]

my take on using the electric knife is that they are a great time saver. they cut nice and clean but they are not for every body.
they are not all equal either.
I have three different knives that I use and there are differences in the blades as well as the handle.
the ones made and marketed specificly for fileting fish usualy come with the traditional looking curved blade. while these may work well to remove the rib bones once the filet has been removed from the carcass, they do not work as well for removing the hide from the filet.
I know I will get arguments here, but unless you have cleaned fish for a resort you probably have cleaned no where near the number of fish that I have. I am not bragging, I have just cleaned a butt load of fish, from walleyes to boneless northerns to thousands of upper red lake crappies. I even filet any sunfish we get.
this said, my favorite way to clean fish, is with skb folding filet knife.
the blade got so wore down, it finaly broke this summer :'(
this I would use to remove the filet from the carcass.
the main reason I like to use the folding knife, (as opposed to the electric) is because I feel I can do a better job with the manual method and I leave the rib bones on the carcass.
I have seen to many butcher jobs using the electric, as well as the hard knife to cut fish that I take care when cleaning the fish that we catch.
I sort of disect each fish. it takes no time when I get going to do eac fish too.
once the filet is removed, I lay it on the board and take out the electric to remove the hide, only I use the straight blade like the wives have in the kitchen drawer for cutting bread.
with the filet laying flat on the board, a curved blade tends to leave meat on the hide on the outer edges of the skin, with the center, curved part of the blade reaching into the skin, cutting it away cleanly.
with the straight blade, using the correct angle, I get a nice clean meatless piece of skin.
if done correctly, you will see a little bit of white left on the filets. that is getting as close as you can without leaving any skin on the meat, or meat on the skin.
I am a fanatic about cleaning fish and nobody else around here would be allowed to do it. I used to clean them all, but as we have evolved as a family of fishers, and the group known as camp jigglestick bacame more and more sucessful, my back seemd to ache more and more
I cant stand at that counter cleaning fish as long as I used to. so, with help from my skilled children who have no problem using the electric knife, they remove the hides as I remove the filets from the bones and stack them up for them.
it is a great time saver, though teaching them how about drove me nuts. I just told myself they were going to chop a few before they got the hang of it and they did. but they did get the hang of it and now I am reaping the rewards.
one other thing to consider is that they make them cordless too.
if you are on an outing with out power, you can still use the electric if you like.

electric knife? I say yes, do it. it would be nice though to have both the straight edge and the curved edge blades to let whomever decide when to use each one. they sure can make a quick job of cleaning your catch.

[GRIZ]

Well put stick.

I agree to a point with the curved vs. straight blade. I have used my mister twister and the one out of moms kitchen for filleting fish. They seem to work equally but the price on one for the kitchen may be cheaper. The ones with the curved blade seem to take them off the hide fine for me when new and sharp with the proper angle. They seem to lose that edge really fast, although will be sharp enough for taking off the carcass and rib bones for quite a time yet. If I had to chose I'd go with the straight blade, I guess??

I do know they save me allot of time but the first time trying one I butchered quite a few. Actually the first few times using an electric I butchered a bunch.

[Harold]

I think first off you need to know whether or not cordless im important.  They will also cost more, but doesn't necessarily mean they will perform any better.

I have this one.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/horizontal-pod.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/pod-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20166-cat410006_TGP&rid=&indexId=cat410006&navAction=push&masterpathid=&navCount=3&parentType=index&parentId=cat410006&id=0030113


I chose this because I needed something that would get me through 5 days in the woods or in a fishhouse without a power source.  I only use electric and have been for the past 5 years. Once I went electric, I couldn't go back. I use it on whatever kind of fish I'm catching that day.  (Crappies, Gills, walleyes, northerns ect.)

This one is a little heavier & bulkier that what I was used to because of the batteries in the handle.  That's the trade off for me though and once I got used to it, it's been great.  I'm on my 2rd year on this one.

Depending on how much it gets used, you could buy the American Angler corded knife for $20.00.  It was what my old one was and worked great as long as I replaced the blade every other year.

[DaveO]

ok ok,,, I just got off the phone with her,,,,,and she still does not know just what one to get her hubby..

we need bands here pros cons right down to the nitty gritty,,,,,

she wants it all....
 

help her buy a knife,,,,,,,after all they are IBOTS

[Mayfly]

This past summer was the first time that I have used an electric fillet knife...Wow! They work great! I was amazed.

 

[WoodChuck]

  :) WELL FOR WHATS IT,S WORTH! A GOOD FRIEND , dead now! he was blind and loved to fish ! he cleaned his own fish without any help and loved cleaning other peoples also. what he used was a mister twister for northers to small sunfish with few bones missed . he did a good job trying to debone northern pike whitch is hard even for someone that can see. so for my two cents  i would recomend a twister .

   THANKS FOR ALL THE GOOD MEMORIES !! MY GOOD FRIEND BIRT!
       FISHED ON TO THE END!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    :)

[Russ-Judy]

Dave- have her go to shopko, walmart, pick out one that fits her hand-  dont worry about the guys hand size, he will adapt to it like a kitten coming for warm milk- there prices are affordable  and they work better than any pro electric Iv ever seen- mine have seen more fish filleted in a season than most see in along time and never had the blades sharpened- they have handles that fit like a fish knife fits to your hand-- a $12-$24 dollar electric knife works wonders- stay away from award handleling that are bulky and cant be easy handled in any direction- if the lady says it fits her hand and can move it--the guy better listen to her