Choosing a knife
What should a fisherman look for in a knife? The short unhelpful answer is - “it depends on what you want to use it for”, but let’s expand a little. The suitability of a knife is obviously determined by the use to which it will be put. Most knives for outdoor use are employed in a variety of ways, which means that if you are restricted to carrying one knife only, then you need to look for a general utility knife that combines differing features, i.e. a set of compromises, but within limits. Let’s look at those limits.
Usage: The first decision is to pin down the intended uses. For a fisherman, this is likely to include cleaning and filleting fish, cutting line or rope or tangled netting, cutting wood, sharpening sticks, whittling, and general outdoor camp craft uses. If you only want to carry one knife, then it’s important to choose a blade that can do most of these jobs reasonably well. If you can carry two knives, then it’s best to choose two that specialise in diametrically different jobs. This is often a choice between slicing (say, filleting), cutting (say, rope) and/or working with the point (say, gouging open a clam).
Basic blade structure: Efficient slicing is best done with a convex blade, whilst cutting is best with a straight blade. If both are required in one knife then a good compromise is either a drop-point blade or a clip-point with some belly for slicing. Cutting rope or bone is easier with a serrated edge, which need not run the length of the blade, but here we are getting to a trade-off between slicing and sawing, which is more difficult to achieve in one blade. In this situation I advise having two knives, one for slicing and one for sawing/cutting. A quillon is advisable if the knife is to be used extensively in wet conditions or in skinning.
Blade point: If a strong point is needed, say for prising open clams, then some weight in the tip is helpful as in a drop-point blade. If more delicate but a sharper/thinner point is needed, for whittling for example, then a clip-point would be more appropriate. A very strong point is inherent in a tanto blade, but overall this blade is unsuitable for outdoor activities. Some mariners’ knives have a blunt point to avoid injury to fellow crew members, should the knife be dropped from the rigging.
Fixed v. folding: This decision is partly determined by the length of blade required: a long skinning blade cannot easily be packaged within a folding knife in a secure way.
Also the local knife laws need to be taken into account, which may determine this decision. A folding knife is safer if it has a locking blade and is more discrete than a fixed blade.
Blade steel: A blade needs to have good edge retention, ease of re-sharpening, strength and rust resistance. Many knives on the market do not specify the steel used. However if you are buying a custom knife then opt for one of the following steels: S30V; ATS-34 (premium grade of stainless steel used by most custom knife makers. It is Japanese steel, owned by Hitachi Steels. The American made equivalent of ATS-34 is 154CM); CPM-T440V - viewed as the "super steel", it outlasts all stainless steels on the market today. It is, however, harder to resharpen due to its unprecedented edge retention. But the trade-off is that you do not have to sharpen as frequently. CPM-T440V is widely used by custom knife makers and is slowly finding its way into high-end or gentlemen's folding knives.
Handle: A good handle is essential and should be comfortable and sized for the hand with or without gloves, depending on the environment. The blade should extend to the back of the handle for strength (“full tang”), the material should be water-resistant and slip-proof, and if skinning and filleting is a frequent job, the handle should have a slip stop at the base. Materials should be durable – dropping a knife usually means that the handle hits the ground first. Finally the handle should be pleasing to look at. Natural materials like stag or wood look great but a workhorse handle is probably better made from slip proof Zytel or something similar. Micarta is a very popular and hard wearing synthetic, but it is very slippery. Finally a lanyard hole is useful in fishing applications, for obvious reasons, but few knives seem to have them.
Components: Check that locking components, liners etc are made in a suitable material – rust proof at the least.
Note on UK knife laws
I am no expert on UK knife laws (so please check for yourselves), but it feels to me that if you adopt common sense then you should be OK. The question to ask yourself is “how suitable is it for me to have this knife, here, at this moment?” A 6” filleting knife on a riverside camp whilst preparing a barbecue seems appropriate. Wearing one on the High Street is not. Please check legality for yourself before you buy a knife – my understanding is that The Criminal Justice Act (1988) says that you may carry a knife with a blade length of 3.0" or less so long as it is capable of folding and it is in an appropriate place. That means no fixed blade knives. If you wish to carry a larger knife then you must have 'reasonable cause', and it must be appropriate to the situation.
For a selection of my fishing knives see here.
The knives are as follows:
Finnish Puulkko - this fixed blade knife has a short double-sided blade with a blunt tip. On one side is the cutting edge, the other side is a serrated edge for de-scaling fish. The handle is non-slip and large to accommodate gloves. This is my knife of choice when on the river.
Thai Foldable - This foldable is of ATS-34 steel with Coccobola and mammoth ivory scales and a ray-skin sheath. I picked it up in Thailand where I found a custom knife maker. The point is very sharp but weak, so not suitable for heavy-duty work around a camp-site. But it's pretty.
Frosts - A cheap but strong fixed blade knife with a very good non-slip handle. It used to be first choice knife with Forestry Commission rangers. It only cost £14 some 6 years ago and is my choice of knife around the camp-site.
French foldable - I am not sure of the steel used in this knife, which I found in a small knife-making shop in the backstreets of Perigeaux in France. I liked the wooden handle and in particular the leather sheath that came with it.
Brusletto - I bought this Brusletto near Bergen in Norway. Strong, wide handle.
AT Barr - the final two foldables are from the well-known knife maker, A T Barr. The first has G10 scales. The second has desert ironwood scales. Both are from ATS-34 steel and are a delight to use.
Acknowledgments
In writing this article, I have benefited enormously from various web-sites and articles including: