Wüsthof Classic IKON Fillet Knife - Premium Stainless Steel Boning Knife for Fish & Meat - Perfect for Professional Chefs & Home Cooking

I'm a retired mechanical engineer with a good background in metallurgy. I now sharpen knives professionally and own some very nice knives. This Wusthof Classic 7 inch fillet knife is the sharpest blade I own. It comes with a 14 degree blade angle (28 degree compound angle) and a very nice sheathe. Make sure that you order the classic. The price difference should guide you since the Classic is more expensive. The knife comes with a lifetime warranty. My old fillet knife wasn't a very good knife. I had sharpened it a number of times but never got anywhere near what this does. Even if you buy your fish from the market and it's already filleted, you will still need to clean it up prior to cooking. In fact, sometimes they have left the skin on one side. Cutting the bloody areas away and thin trimming the surface where the skin was separated is a must in my kitchen. Doing this improves the taste. The thin area just under the fish where the skin has been removed seems to carry a fishy taste when cooked. I think that this is related to how fresh the fish is. I always do a lemon concentrate wash prior to cleaning up the fish. I then wash well in water and then start cutting the fish into pieces. Sometimes the fish is too thick in certain areas and needs to be halved. This blade will have no trouble accomplishing about anything you need to do in preparing your fish for cooking. I think this is the best fillet knife money can buy. You can spend well over double on signature craftsmen's blades but I seriously doubt that they can out preform the Wusthof Classic. You are paying more for the name and looks than the blades preformance in these cases in my opinion.