[North Arm Knives Ltd]

Hello everyone,

We will soon be designing our next knife model, which will be a filleting knife. We've always found it difficult to find good ones ourselves and know that many others we talk to have the same problem. We'd like your input on what should and should not be part of the design! What do you like/hate about fillet knives you've used? Check out this post on our website to get an idea of what type of information we need from you. The more specific you can be the better! With your help we hope to design the best fillet knife you've ever laid hands on!

Thanks and tight lines!

Mike and John

 

[North Arm Knives Ltd]

We've have finally started design on the Fillet knife today! We spent the morning drawing up a few different rough 2-D profiles in CAD. This afternoon we'll mill some of these out of thin plywood to get a better idea of how they look and feel in the hand. This is part of our standard prototyping process. Next we'll discuss/apply changes and repeat the process.

More updates coming soon!

-Mike & John

 

[VE7TOY]

I like the handle and back bone of three but with a little more upswept tip

 

[North Arm Knives Ltd]

I like the handle and back bone of three but with a little more upswept tip

Thanks for the response! Third from the bottom?

 

[Spoonman]

.....my vote for the top one...

 

[scissorbill]

Top one as well.
Not just for looks but I find the one's that are straight from butt to tip don't have the same control/leaverage for the more delicate cuts (butterflying/deboning chicken etc;

 

[gidyup]

I like the bottom one but with more upsweep on the tip.
I also prefer a stiffer blade much like a boning knife
slender but stiff, good for fillet but still knocks a head off with ease
8-9" stiff blade with the bottom handle would be the perfect knife IMO

 

[professori]

I like the handle on the bottom with the blade of the top one. I'd also like to see serrations on the 1 1/2"-2" closest to the handle. It makes cutting through spines much easier and safer on large fish.

 

[North Arm Knives Ltd]

Well we did a couple more sets of wooden profiles (with tweaks between each set.) Then yesterday we milled the first set of steel knives which I began grinding bevels into today! Below is a progression from Design, to CNC programming to milling of the first steel knives.

2d Design in CAD

CNC coding in CAM (creating tool paths for the CNC mill)

Milling!

4 designs profiled ready to hand grind

 

[arrgh!]

What is going to seal the deal for your production model? Do you give them away for testing or test them all yourself? I imagine dumping them in a commercial processor might give you the best feedback?

 

[Canso]

The bottom one looks sweet, I'm interested to hear about the testing feedback.

 

[North Arm Knives Ltd]

What is going to seal the deal for your production model? Do you give them away for testing or test them all yourself? I imagine dumping them in a commercial processor might give you the best feedback?

We'll be doing our own testing to begin with, all the essentials (strength tests for example) as well as some functionality tests; a good excuse to get out on the water . Once we've made some revisions and converged on a single prototype design we'll get them out to other fisherman for beta testing. That will probably result in a bunch more tweaks. Like you suggested we'll also try to get them into the hands of a fish processor or charter company or something of that nature.

-mike

 

[North Arm Knives Ltd]

The bottom one looks sweet, I'm interested to hear about the testing feedback.

Thanks! We'll be posting regular updates as to how the testing is going

 

[Grizzz]

Nice idea, but no blood line spoon? Those of us who cut lots of fish like the scoop on the filleting knife. Look at any fish plant and see what the pro cutters use and how they do it. That's how I learned many yrs. ago.

 

[North Arm Knives Ltd]

We heat treated the first 4 steel fillet knife prototypes on friday! Will be finish grinding a couple of them this morning before heading out for some testing on the Fraser this afternoon!

-mike

 

[North Arm Knives Ltd]

Finished up some wooden handles for the knives this morning, now we're coating them with a finish to make them waterproof. The finish will dry over night and then testing can start in earnest!

 

[North Arm Knives Ltd]

Here are the finished prototypes.

 

[llevelzero]

I like the sweep of the bottom one in the first picture. I find a curved blade easier to fillet with.

Something I'm been thinking of doing to my fishing knife is milling a notch in the top of the blade like you see on a skinning knife.

 

[jpar247]

I've noticed after this season of fishing and cleaning fish that my next fillet knife will have to have some backbone to the blade and just not a super thin blade like the cheap kershaws. I've spend hours trying to sharpen that thing on my Wicked Edge and its never comes out well. I think its between the steel being so soft and the blade being so thing that the edge actually rolls over on every stroke. A steel was the only way to keep a edge and it would be gone after every fish.

By the looks of the protos your knives will have mass and maybe have a bit of flex, which I think will be perfect. Any thought of G10 scales? I would like a aggressive texture and you could even probably design a bit of a spoon on the back end... Just some food for thought...

 

[jpar247]

I've noticed alot of knife guys recommending the fillet from Knives of Alaska as one of the leaders. What steel you guys thinking about going with?

Im actually probably gonna put in a order for one of your guys knives on monday...:thumbup:

Oh, and remember a lanyard hole on the rear...