The 5 Best Fish Fillet Knives of 2024, Tested & Reviewed

Nov 06, 2024

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I tested 12 knives made by Wüsthof, Shun, and New West KnifeWorks to find my favorite picks.

In This Article

Food & Wine / Jason Horn

Breaking down a whole fish can seem challenging for the home cook, but using the right tool makes it considerably more manageable. A long, skinny fillet knife is an essential tool for seafood, with a highly maneuverable blade that gives you lots of control. Unlike a chef's knife, which needs heft to chop hard vegetables, the best fish fillet knives are pliable and lightweight, allowing you to maneuver around the tiny bones in fish.

We chose 12 fish fillet knives to pit against each other for the Food & Wine seal of approval. I tested my skills by slicing up a boatload of fresh perch. After enjoying several fried fish meals, I'm ready to declare my favorites. Here's what I learned about the best fish fillet knives.

This sharp, flexible blade offers great control at a reasonable price.

The knife has quite a plain look, and its handle isn't that secure to hold.

One major takeaway from my testing is that a flexible blade is almost always better for filleting fish. It's more maneuverable and seemed to help lift the delicate flesh while cutting it away from tiny bones. Flexible blades also tend to be thinner, helping to slice between skin and meat. Victorinox's fillet knife is a great example: It may not look special, but it gave me top-level performance at a low-end-of-medium price.

This knife is amazingly sharp, sliding smoothly through a sheet of paper and a whole perch in testing. It's the right size for general kitchen use, long enough to work efficiently with a big salmon but not so long that you lose the agility to deal with smaller fish, too. It even did a pretty good job slicing off the thin perch skin, which was tough for every knife in my test.

I did not love the Victorinox's handle, however. It's rather short and narrow, not super-comfortable to hold. The plastic material cleans off easily with a soapy sponge. However, its only slightly roughened texture isn't as grippy as it should be. I found it easy for the Victorinox to twist in my hand, especially when wet.

Blade Length: 8 inches | Blade Material: Stainless steel | Total Length: 13.5 inches | Weight: 3.1 ounces | Handle Material: Plastic

This knife is sharp, agile, and beautifully constructed. It even includes free sharpening for life.

This fish fillet knife is staggeringly expensive.

Wyoming's New West KnifeWorks makes kitchen knives that are as much a work of art as tools. The handles look like natural wood grain, but they're made of a resin-impregnated fabric called G10 that's smoother and lighter than wood, with bright colors that look like nothing else on the market. You can also get simple black and brown.

New West's blades cut well, too, thanks to a special extra-hard stainless steel developed specifically for knife making. The fillet knife slid through paper and fish with little effort, and it did an excellent job removing skin thanks to its slim profile. It narrows to a fine point at the end, which is great for maneuvering around fins or bones. The balance is near-perfect, and I loved the little notch at the blade heel for protecting and positioning my index finger.

Just prepare for some sticker shock: this fillet knife costs twice as much as any other I tested. It's a show-off piece for any kitchen.

Blade Length: 7 inches | Blade Material: Stainless steel | Total Length: 12.5 inches | Weight: 4.1 ounces | Handle Material: G10

This is a sharp, durable, professional-level fish fillet knife at an astoundingly low price.

The blade is fairly short, and not flexible enough for optimal maneuverability.

Dexter-Russell knives' plain white plastic handles don't look special, but you'll commonly find them in the hands of professional chefs. The brand is focused on making inexpensive, functional blades that will hold up under daily use, and its fish fillet knife is a great example of that philosophy. For less than 20 bucks, this model delivers a secure grip, near-perfect balance, and smooth slicing. In my tests, this fish fillet knife was especially good at removing skin, with an impressive edge to boot.

On the downside, the Dexter-Russell is short in length and short on agility: Its 7-inch blade can be tough to work around tiny fish bones due to its thickness and lack of flex.

Blade Length: 7 inches | Blade Material: Stainless steel | Total Length: 12 inches | Weight: 3.5 ounces | Handle Material: Plastic

This knife's extra-long, extra-strong blade is also extra-sharp, and the handle is extra-comfortable.

The long, stiff blade isn't as maneuverable with small fish, and the bright orange color looks more appropriate to boat than kitchen.

As the name suggests, the KastKing is a knife designed specifically for fishing. The neon-orange handle and sheath are easy to spot in the tangle of equipment in the back of a boat, and the blade has a black finish that resists corrosion even from saltwater (and looks pretty slick). It's just as useful for prepping bait on the dock or gutting a fish you just pulled from the ocean as it is for prepping the fish to cook at home.

This 9-inch blade is the longest fillet knife KastKing makes, and it's great for big fish with firm flesh — think salmon, tuna, and swordfish. It's razor-sharp, although the length and lack of flexibility were less maneuverable in testing and yielded a small perch fillet. On the other hand, it's big enough to handle various other meats and can substitute for a general butcher knife or boning knife. And it's the third-cheapest blade I tested, a good value no matter how you use it.

It's certainly a non-traditional look for a kitchen knife, but I liked the shape and the soft, almost squishy texture of the KastKing handle. It feels great to hold and can securely accommodate different grip styles. I worried that the grooves in the handle would be difficult to clean, but they're too shallow to hold onto any food bits and rinsed off easily.

Blade Length: 9 inches | Blade Material: Stainless steel | Total Length: 14.5 inches | Weight: 4.1 ounces | Handle Material: Polymer | Includes: Plastic sheath

This sharp, light, and lithe knife is a joy to hold.

It's pretty expensive, and its flexible blade is on the tall side.

We're big fans of Japanese knives at Food & Wine, and Shun holds a special place in my heart: My main chef's knife is still the Shun I bought as a present for myself when I got my first job as a food writer.

And this Shun lived up to my high expectations in testing, especially with the paper test. It was the top single performer, moving through a sheet like a hot knife through butter. The signature D-shaped handle in Shun's Classic series is comfortable and secure, with a perfectly smooth surface that washes off easily.

This knife also did very well with fish, removing clean fillets from the bone thanks to the springiness of its extra-bendy blade. It's impressive how strong and flexible the steel is, especially with a blade taller than the others I tested. That tallness can be a disadvantage with fine slicing, as more blade surface area has to clear through whatever you're cutting. Shun knives are also expensive, though this one's price pales compared to the New West above.

Blade Length: 7 inches | Blade Material: Stainless steel | Total Length: 12 inches | Weight: 3.7 ounces | Handle Material: Pakkawood

Fish fillet knives should be sharp, durable, and easy to hold without slipping, My tests showed that a flexible blade is a big advantage. My top pick is the Victorinox 8-Inch Flexible Fillet Knife, which has precision sharpness and the optimal design at a reasonable price. If you're looking for a unique heirloom or generous gift for the seafood lover, try the New West KnifeWorks 7-Inch Fillet Knife, which is eye-catching and effective.

Food & Wine / Jason Horn

Based on the results of previous tests in multiple knife categories, we chose 12 fish fillet knives to compare head-to-head. I examined each fish fillet knife and noted its weight, balance, and overall design, then performed a series of specific tests.

Food & Wine / Jason Horn

After completing my other tests, I noted the fish fillet knives' retail prices to consider value for money. The 12 fish fillet knives ranged from $18 to $310, with an average of $99.

Food & Wine / Jason Horn

Almost all knives — and all the fish fillet models I tested for this story — have blades made of steel. But there are a lot of different kinds of steel, each made from a slightly different mix of carbon, iron, and other elements. Traditionally, the highest-quality knives are made from carbon steel, which has a high proportion of carbon. These hard steels can hold a sharp edge, but they're expensive to process, susceptible to rust, and prone to chipping. Stainless steel adds chromium to the mix, making a shiny material that's less likely to corrode but is also softer and needs sharpening more often.

Food & Wine / Jason Horn

If you plan to take your fillet knife fishing, you'll want stainless to protect from corrosion, especially if salt water is involved. "Carbon steel" and "stainless steel" describe a range of materials: Every knife brand has a different type of steel and production process, sometimes using multiple layers of different compositions or hybrid types of stainless steel made to be more durable.

A long, narrow blade is best for filleting a fish: This shape makes it easiest to work carefully around tiny, near-invisible bones without damaging the meat. Many fish fillet knives go a step further, with a blade so narrow it can bend. In my tests, I found that flexible blades almost always outperform stiff ones with the delicate task of filleting fish. You can use the springy bend to pull the meat away from the bones at the same time that you slice. Flexible blades also tend to be narrower and make a cleaner slice.

Food & Wine / Jason Horn

In my tests, I found that flexible blades almost always outperform stiff ones with the delicate task of filleting fish.

A secure grip on your knife is important, but working with whole fish can be especially slippery. You're likely to have wet hands and to be turning the blade with your wrist as you work. Plastic or silicone handles sometimes have a pebbled or crosshatch pattern to keep them from twisting in your hand, even when wet. Finished wood and resin are often perfectly smooth, an advantage for washing but more of a slipping hazard. But texture and shape both come into play for grip: A perfectly round handle is comfortable to hold but can rotate freely in your hand, while a rectangular, oblong, or asymmetrical one cannot.

Delicate fish require specialty knives to prevent damaging the flesh. "When breaking down fish, a fish fillet knife cuts through skin, bone, and flesh,” says chef and food stylist Sarah Blair. “The blade is long and flexible and curves upward from the handle to the blade’s tip. The specificity of the blade makes it ideal for making precise cuts, slicing around bones, and going between skin and flesh. This knife is called a fillet knife because its primary purpose is to remove the skin and bone from fish, creating a perfect fillet."

Definitely not! A fillet knife can double as a small boning knife, with the thin profile making it easy to work around the bones and joints of poultry, trim fat from meat, or even debone a leg of lamb. You can also use a fillet knife a bit like a paring knife to prep and slice delicate fruits and vegetables, though the longer blade can be harder to control for something like carving a garnish. It's a little too small and light to replace a chef's or butcher knife for heavy-duty work, however.

"Sharpening a fillet knife is slightly different than sharpening other knives because the blade is flexible," says Blair. For most knives, you would sharpen from heel to tip. You want to go from tip to heel with a flexible fish fillet knife so that the blade doesn't bend away from you while you slide along it. If you sharpen it from heel to tip, you're likely to miss the center portion of the blade.

Technically yes, but you're more likely to make a mess of it if you use a thicker, bulkier blade. You want to start at the head end of the fish and slice into the meat just behind the gills and pectoral fin. When you hit bone, turn the knife sideways and work your way toward the tail, carefully slicing meat away from ribs and spine.

It's really just two different spellings of the same term, but in American English, "fillet" usually refers to fish and "filet" refers to beef. A fillet is the side of a fish sliced away from the bones, while a filet (short for filet Mignon) is a tender steak cut from the small end of a beef tenderloin.

Bubba Interchangeable Blade System ($140 at Cabela's)

Very much a tool for fishing and hunting, this clever set has four different blades that pop in and out of the same handle so you can do big or small tasks. The blades fit securely and swapped smoothly in testing, but neither the stiff nor flexible one I tested was super-sharp, and the whole carrying case situation isn't very kitchen-friendly.

Food & Wine / Jason Horn

Zwilling J.A. Henckels Four Star Fillet Knife ($90 at Amazon)

This fish fillet knife did the best job removing skin from a fillet, which was tough with the thin-skinned perch I used in testing. But it's not flexible, which is a big disadvantage with whole fish, and the rounded handle felt slippery even when dry.

Shun Classic Gokujo Knife ($175 at Amazon)

The gokujo is a hybrid fish fillet/boning knife, with a short blade and sharp point for dexterity but a little more heft than a traditional fillet knife. It has the same sharpness and high-quality handle as the flexible Shun above, but it was less successful in testing at slicing off a clean fillet. I found the lack of flexibility and the larger blade size disadvantages.

Food & Wine / Jason Horn

Rapala Fish'n Fillet Knife ($38 at Amazon)

This compact and portable fish fillet knife is a solid value for its price. The small size makes it quite nimble, though it's not as sharp as I would have liked. I had trouble making it through the skin to start filleting in my tests. The handle is also too short to hold very comfortably.

The fish fillet knives at the bottom of my ranking were simply unsuccessful in the test, failing to remove a full fillet in one piece. For two knives, this was just due to a lack of sharpness and needing to saw back and forth to cut effectively. And for a Wüsthof — a brand whose knives typically perform very well — the problem wasn't dullness but bulk; it was significantly heavier than the other fish fillet knives and offered less precise control.

Adria Greenhauff is an experienced freelance writer whose articles about food, dining, and lifestyle have appeared on sites such as Better Homes and Gardens, Travel + Leisure, Southern Living, Hunker, All Recipes, and JustLuxe. She is the host of the Better Food Stories interview podcast.