I would love to find a 9" filet knife made from good steel. Most I see are made of 420 or some other "easy to sharpen steel". I would love to have one made from something other than stock steel. What is the board's recommendation for a 9" or 10" blade? I really like the pattern of this knife but the steel is such crap I refuse to use it.

These work well.
http://www.rapala.com/rapala/knives/fill...ves&start=3

The older ones are great if you can find one. The newer ones are made in China, so now they are crap steel as well!

1095 is good, but will rust if not oiled

I have 4 custom made/one off fillet knives in 1095
in 4 different shapes, from 6" - 11"

Set was meant to clean anything from crappie/stripers
to tuna/groupers

if you're interested, I am selling the set for $400

Fillet knifes are a challenge. Get them hard enough to hold an edge and then they are a lot less flexible and could break if flexed to far. Keep them flexible and they won't hold a good edge. Bigger knives can be differentially quenched so the edge gets hard but the spine will still flex but the small profile of a filet knives makes that very hard to achieve. I've never tried to make one for that very reason.

A lot of custom makers use 440 C stainless steel. With proper heat treating and a cryogenic quench you can achieve good edge holding and still have a reasonable amount of flex to it.

I have a 20 year old Green handle Schrade that held an edge well. But it seems now not so much. Is it possible to sharpen away the tempered area over a long period of time?

Cabo, I only catch really large fish so I don't need a crappie size knife.

I've had several people tell me that the Dexter knives are good. I have not used one myself.

They're good knives, I have about 30 of them for fish and other game

lately I've been using Euro Nordic fillet knives in VG10 and
fine steel from Japan - quite impressed

I use Dexter in all of my Markets. Great knives and a great company. They fall on the easy to sharpen side of the equation being made of 440 or 420 Stainless from what I have been told.

So I broke down and bought a 1947 Gerber carving knife set for $40 off Ebay. One of the knives in the set is 12", which should translate into a 9" blade. From the research I did it appears these were the first knives Gerber made after the war and are made of a modified surgical steel. Based on research they can be difficult to put an edge on but once achieve are extremely durable. I post up what comes of them, worst case they come in a walnut box.