Damascus Fillet Knife, 6.5 Inch Flexible Blade, Rosewood Handle

Taking fillets off a bluegill is a small job repeated many times over. The fish is short, the ribs sit close, and a long blade gets in your own way. This is a 6.5 inch Damascus blade in a rosewood handle, built to bend along a bone rather than push through it. It is the size most people reach for while they are still learning where the backbone runs.

Specification

The blade

The steel is Damascus, pattern welded over a high carbon core, etched so a raindrop pattern shows down the whole blade. The bevel is left fine and bright. The blade is narrow, ground thin, with an upswept tip for starting a cut behind the gill plate. There is real give in it. Enough to follow the ribs without tearing flesh off them, and enough backbone that the edge stays where you put it. The core is carbon, so it darkens with use and it will spot if you leave it wet on a bench.

The handle

Rosewood is dense and oily in itself, so it copes with fish and water better than an open grained wood. It darkens slowly and takes a shine from being held. The tang runs full length behind the scales with brass pins through it, and a steel bolster sits where your index finger meets the blade. That bolster stops a wet hand sliding forward. Five inches of handle lets you choke up near the heel on a small fish or hold back for a longer stroke.

The leather sheath

The sheath is vegetable tanned leather, cut for this blade so it goes in snug. The face is stamped with a basket weave. A welt is sewn into the edge so the stitching stays clear of the steel, and every stitch goes in by hand. A snap strap holds the handle. It covers the blade only, so treat it as what the knife lives in between trips, not a rig you wear.

Who it suits

Most first fillet knives are longer than the fish they end up meeting. If what you bring home is bream and crappie, this length is easier to steer.

• Anyone buying a first fillet knife
• Panfish and trout more often than salmon
• People working on a small board or a tailgate
• Buyers who want Damascus in a shorter blade

What comes in the box

• The Damascus fillet knife
• The hand stitched leather sheath
• A care card
• A free laser engraving quote on request

Every piece is different

Every knife is forged, ground and finished by hand in small runs, so no two leave the shop alike. The raindrop pattern will sit differently on your blade than on the one photographed, and rosewood grain shifts from one board to the next. Yours will be its own piece, not a copy.

Looking after it

Hand wash it and dry it straight away. A thin blade punishes neglect faster than a thick one. Give it a light coat of food safe mineral oil before it goes back in the sheath. Cut on wood or plastic, never on glass or a metal rail. Never the dishwasher. The gray patina that comes up on the core steel is normal and it helps. More sits on our knife care and sharpening page.

Put a name on it

Laser engraving is 20 dollars per blade and you add it on this page. Around 30 characters fits, and on a blade this narrow a name or a date reads better than a sentence. We send a proof image before the laser runs, and it adds 3 to 5 business days. Free on orders of 10 or more. The rest is on the engraving page.

Questions buyers ask

Is a 6.5 inch blade long enough? For panfish and trout it is plenty, and a short blade is easier to steer.

How does this differ from a boning knife? A boning knife is shorter and stiffer, made for joints and bone in meat and poultry. This one bends.

Will this steel rust? The core is carbon, so dry it straight away and keep a light film of oil on it.

How long does shipping take? Most US orders arrive in 5 to 7 business days.

Is it full tang? Yes, the steel runs unbroken to the butt with brass pins through the scales.

Can I have it sharpened later? Yes, sharpening is free for life on knives we make.

If you want the same steel in a longer blade, the Damascus fillet knife with a blue resin handle runs 8 inches. For meat rather than fish, the hand forged boning knife on the same rosewood pairs with it. The rest is in fillet and boning knives, in rosewood handle knives, and in Damascus steel.