Tale of the One-Trick Pony Kitchen Knife

If the other kitchen knives can talk they will describe the fillet knife as a one-trick-pony skinny blade.

To which the fillet knife, if also able to talk, will respond, "True, perhaps,  but none of them can do the trick only I can achieve. Only I can slice fish or meat, even fruit to the thickness of an onion skin.  That's 63 microns to y'all" (challenging the vegetable, paring, chef's, serrated knives, including the cleaver). 

Well, since we allowed it to speak, it is a reasonable expectation that the fillet knife will also exaggerate. A little bit.

A bare fillet blade I recently purchased, wood from the scrap heap, and time from the idle woodworker's docket, and it's a project.

First I laminated thin pieces of red Padauk and an unknown (or can't remember) hardwood.

Double sided tape temporarily fastened the laminated scales to the tang of the blade.  Drilled the three holes for the steel pins.

Using 2-part epoxy the scales were glued and clamped to the blade

On the table saw I cut two grooves (dadoes) on each side, as shown, to the depth of the thin red Padauk.

Below, pieces of red Padauk were glued into the spaces of the groove

Using my shop-made bow saw (coping saw would have been inadequate on the laminated hardwood) I roughly cut the shape of the handle. 

Lots of patience filing the handle to the desired shape.

A belt sander did a good job of flattening the sides.  

Several coats of Tung oil followed a three coats of water-based polyurethane.

I frequently checked while shaping the handle so that the center of gravity of the knife is at between the index and middle finger. With that the blade would seem weightless while handling the knife, making the filleting motion effortless, in my opinion.

Part 2 is to create the knife stand for it.

From 1/4 plywood I created a sort of prototype of the stand to determine the proper height

On the table saw, I ripped two equal pieces of acrylic.

Below, together with the other one-trick-pony - chopsticks.  This is its place, away from the other knives.

I must disclose that for years before this project I've been using the 6 inch Wusthof fillet knife, a Trident German brand, with a slightly wider and thicker blade. It is a lower end version of the more expensive ones with riveted wood handles but I think the blade is the same.  And I must say  that I think my project-version is a bit more elegant 😊😌.