Below is an introduction to a series on Bait Knives.  I will return to this blog over time with reviews of the numerous Utility Fishing/Bait knives I own. 

The Modern Bait Knife
by: Tobias Gibson

Before World War II most anglers fell into one of two categories -- those who fished for fun and those who fished for necessity.  Those who fished for fun could afford expensive tackle. Those who fished for necessity made their own tackle and used whatever knife they had on hand. After World War II, recreational fishing was affordable to almost everyone. And with this new found past-time and disposable income, recreational fishing became extremely popular. It wasn't long before tackle companies tapped into this market and there was an explosion of new types of fishing tackle, including knives for the recreational angler. Some were well thought out and others were downright gimmicky but all were guaranteed to help the week-end angler catch more fish or make cleaning his catch less of a chore! The trend continues to this very day!

Initially the term bait knife was used primarily by off shore anglers and commercial fishers to describe their knives used to cut and prepare bait. However, in more recent times, the term bait knife is universally applied to any small utility fishing knife regardless of the type of angler using it. For sake of clarity this article will focus on knives currently marketed as bait knives and will look at past fishing utility knives that share these attributes.

Bait knives have been around for as long as knives and fishing have been around. Essentially they are knives used to cut and prepare bait. For the most part, this means the bigger the bait the bigger the knife. Among deep-sea anglers and off-shore commercial fishers you will find a variety of knives used to process and prepare bait for fishing. These knives range in size from your typical kitchen paring knife to large cleavers and butcher knives. And while all of these knives are sometimes used in preparation, they normally have specific names based on their function or style (Utility, Skinner, Sliming, Slicer, Boning, Fillet, Butcher, etc.). The utility knives normally have a three or four inch straight skinning blade and these are the ones often thought of as bait knives. These are also the knives, the typical pan fisher has in his week-end tackle box and will often call a bait knife.

Above:  The Evolution Reaper, a typical example of the modern bait knife with all the bells and whistles -Fine cutting edge, serrated spine for scaling and cutting bone, line cutting notch, scabbard with drain holes, etc..

The Evolution the Bait Knife

Today, the term bait knife is a term loosely applied to any fixed blade knife used by all types of anglers for general fishing chores other than  filleting fish. In the past, the term bait seems to have been used primarily by ocean commercial fishers and deep-sea anglers to describe knives used to cut up or scar bait. It's meaning has not changed but the knives have evolved to some degree over time. Among the week-end inshore angler, the knife was normally called their fishing knife.

For recreational anglers, the type of knife required often depends on the type of fishing they are doing -- fishing for pan fish requires different bait than fishing for tarpon!  Most anglers who fish in streams or from a river bank or in a row boat on a small lake wanted a small knife that would fit in a tackle box or in a vest pocket.  Among fixed bladed knives the options were a small kitchen knife, a small hunting knife, or a fillet knife.  

And for many anglers, one of these options will still meet their needs.  Many just want something that is small and will cut.  However, for other anglers, the search for the perfect cutting tool was just as vital as the perfect rod, reel, bait, or hook.  Thus, anglers, knife makers, and tackle companies have set out to determine how a general utility knife could be perfected for fishing. 

The problem with using the fillet knife as an all-around utility knife is obvious. The blade is thin and flexible and can easily brake or nick. In short, the knife is really designed to do one thing -- fillet fish. Its use as a general purpose utility knife is really less than adequate and often detracts from its intended purpose -- the blade gets ruined and does a lousy job filleting.

Above:  A Rapala 4 inch Filet Knife.  While it is an excellent choice for filleting pan fish, the thin flexible blade could break doing more robust work.

This left two options for a general utility knife for recreational fresh water angler.

Option one was often a kitchen paring or steak knife or a stiff bladed boning  knife. This gave the angler a knife that measured between six and ten inches overall; with a blade somewhere between 3 and six inches. The knives are light weight, typically had no sheath, and while the blades were stiff, they were relatively thin. The handles offered no type of guard and were often slippery when wet.

Option two was the small hunting knife. One such knife, commonly called a Bird & Trout has been around for well over a hundred years. It is basically a small hunting knife with a slender blade, often around three to four inches long and an over-all length of around seven to nine inches; essentially a large paring knife on steroids. It was designed for cleaning and gutting small game, birds and fish. The knife has been around for at least as long as recreational fishing and possibly longer. It remains a popular choice for many anglers.

Of course, other types of small hunting knives were also preferred, especially by fishers who camped out and wanted a more robust or larger blade that could accomplish other camp chores as well as do fish duty. This led to larger utility fishing knives as well as the Bird & Trout being employed by the week-end angler.

In any case, both the kitchen knife and small hunting knives lacked some qualities that fresh water anglers wanted in a knife. The paring knife was not robust enough and most hunting knives were overkill.  Also, neither the Bird & Trout nor the paring knife was capable of accomplishing a common fishing chore -- scaling fish. I'm sure somewhere along the way some angler cut notches in the spine of his knife and began using this to scale fish. Eventually knife makers followed suit and the utility fishing knife was born.

As recreational fishing became more popular, purpose built fishing knives also grew in popularity. Almost every tackle supplier and every major American knife maker and importer offered some type of utility knife for the recreational angler.

In recent years, it seems that companies have started calling these special purpose utility fishing knives, bait knives, marketing the knives for all types of fishing.  I suspect this is because anglers started using this term instead of Fish-Knife as this term seems to be used to describe folding fish knives.  I suspect companies then started marketing their fixed blade utility fishing knives as bait knives. As of the time of this writing the term bait knife has not made it into the Oxford English Dictionary.

Above:  Boker (USA) 155 small game knife, another forerunner to the modern bait knife.  A great knife for gutting but it lacks a method to scale fish.

 Defining the modern bait knife:

 The Bait Knife is a small utility fixed blade knife that is purpose built for use by recreational/sports fishers.  It is designed for cutting bait and other related chores other than filleting.   While any small fixed blade can be used as a bait knife, the purpose built bait knife has evolved over time to meet the specific needs of the sport/recreational fisher.  The origins of today’s bait knife are probably the Bird & Trout or a stiff bladed kitchen knife; such as a large paring or steak knife.

Above: Chicago Cutlery's Steak Knife and South Bend's bait knife could both serve the angler well for many utility needs.  Viewing the two knives together allows one to see how a steak knives can easily evolve into a purpose built fishing knife.

Attributes of a good bait knife:

A good bait knife has a single blade with multiple cutting options, has non-slip handle even when wet,   will not rust easily even around salt water,  and can fit in a small tackle box.

Overall size:

 The typical bait knife is six to eleven inches long with the norm being between eight or nine inches. The blade will normally make up half the length of the knife.  The typical blade is three to five inches with around four inches being the norm.

Durability:

As a general rule most modern bait knives are inexpensive knives built to aid in light chores.  Most bait knives feature 420 steel that will require frequent sharpening.   Many only have a partial tang, similar to what you find on kitchen paring knives and will not hold up to abuse in the manner of a full tang hunting knife.  The bait knife’s construction is more than adequate for cutting bait, and other light duty fishing chores but the knife is not designed for heavy work such as batoning through hard wood.   Remember, for the most part the bait knife is really just a modified kitchen paring knife.  Of course there are exceptions to this rule.  However a better quality bait knife that can be used for more heavy duty chores will also cost more and can still fail you if used improperly or abused.  If used properly even an inexpensive partial tang bait knife will serve you well for years.  When you hear bait knife think kitchen paring knife not Air Force Survival Knife!

Blade:

 While the Bait knife is a normally a fixed blade this single blade will normally have multiple functions designed within the single blade.  Stainless Steel is normally used for the blade.  Most of the time, the grade of stainless steel is not listed, however 420 is often used.   The blade is normally thicker than that of a fillet knife and offers little or no flex as the knife is not designed for filleting fish but for chopping and slicing.  The thickness will vary but is normally between 1/16 inch and 1/8 inch thick.  While the blades are normally slender, they normally are not as slender as a fillet knife which also adds rigidness and strength.

Primary cutting edge:  The normal cutting edge has a fine edge but ultrafine serrated edges are also used by some companies.  This edge is used for general purpose work such as slicing, dicing, cutting, carving, and any other chores that might come up.

Fish Scaler:  A fish scaler is sometime incorporated along the spine of the knife.  On more modern knifes this is commonly being replaced  coarse serrated saw  edge  that doubles as a scaler and saw  for cutting through cartilage and fish bones and other heavy cutting chores.

Line Cutter:   Many will have a small notch cut in the spine of the knife that is used for cutting fishing line.  The notch is often exposed even when the knife is in the scabbard allowing for line to be cut without removing the scabbard.  The notch is too narrow to allow fingers to reach the cutting edge.

Handle: 

These days, the handles are normally made of molded hard rubber or thermos-plastics and have a non-slip surface.  Older bait knives also used cork and wood.  In some cases the handle has a buoyant quality that will allow the knife to float if dropped in the water.   

Lanyard Hole:  Most will have a lanyard hole which can be used to attach a lanyard or floatation device. Some come with a lanyard already attached.

It Floats:  Some knife makers make bait knives with a handle that allows the knife to float. For some fishers this is more of gimmick than a necessity.  It really depends on where you process your fish.

Visibility:  The handle of the bait knife is often what will set it apart from other bait knives.  In some cases bright colors also make the knife easy to find in low light conditions.   Often floating knives will have bright colored handles to help find the knife if it is dropped in the water.

Sheath:  

Many bait knives have no sheath at all as they are just carried in the top shelf of the tackle box.   However, some of the better quality one will have a thermoplastic scabbard that covers the blade but provides no method for belt carry.  Of course some also have sheaths that allow for belt carry or MOLLE attachment.  Because most bait knives are stored in a tackle box, the sheath is often seen as superfluous or even detrimental due to the knife’s use around water as well as fish processing duties.    Thus it is often assumed the knife will be stored in the tackle box or at the processing station.  When a scabbard is provided with a modern bait knife it often has numerous drain holes and cut outs to reduce the risk of rusting.  As mentioned before, if the knife has a line cutting notch, the scabbard is often designed to allow its use without removing the knife.  Older s bait knives or their predecessor often had sheaths of wood or leather.

Collect-ability: 

Obviously anything can be collected but as most bait knives are branded for sale through tackle suppliers (Berkley, Eagle Claw, Shakespeare, Rapala, South Bend, etc.) , they are often over looked by knife collectors.   In many cases, the same exact knife is sold by different companies with the only difference being the color of the handle! Often the company name doesn’t even appear on the knife; making it an unbranded knife once it out of the package!  So when it comes to fishing equipment, most tackle enthusiasts concentrate on older fishing lures or reels and not mundane fishing knives.  Tackle collectors, like knife collectors prefer to collect identifiable brands!  

 Combine this with the fact that the bait knives are modern, relatively inexpensive, and rarely customized means you have an item that is overlooked by collectors, for good reason; the return on investment is marginal at best and more likely a losing proposition at least within the collectors life time.

Of course nobody can predict what tomorrow will bring.  Like old fishing lure, old fishing knives are also a popular item to collect and depending on the scarcity and their overall condition some very common fishing knives from as little as fifty years are demanding a high dollar value.  The primary features of older fishing knives that drive the value are where the knife was made, who made it, and how unique was the pattern. 

Just as with lure and other fishing tackle, knives made by well-known and respected maker are more highly sought after than lesser known or respected makers.  If the company has gone out of business, then the demand for the brand will also increase.

As can be expected there are also numerous vintage fishing/bait knives floating around that are simply stamped with the word stainless and country of origins (such as USA/Stainless or Stainless/Solingen) or nothing at all! These may have been distributed through a tackle company such as some of the modern bait knives or they have simply been sold unbranded from bait shops or hardware stores. The world will probably never know.  Branded knives demand more money but may not necessarily be of better quality.  Among collectors, Unbranded Knives from the USA and Nordic (Finland and Sweden) countries are probably more highly valued than those from Germany and Japan as the quality is considered better..  Solingen made German knives rank higher than Japanese knives probably because they are older and were made for the American import/export market post WWII.

Novelty fishing knives and rare patterns also seem to demand a higher price than the run of the mill knife.  As can be expected, several factors also determine their value as well but primarily their price is based on a perceived scarcity, usefulness, and general condition.

To best determine the potential  value of the modern bait knife on the secondary collector’s market one should apply the same  general philosophy that collectors apply to older utility fishing knives that are currently being collected.  In most cases this means mean that today’s modern bait knife will become worth collecting in a generation or two and not in a year or two.  We can also assume that the value of older bait knives has probably reached a plateau and will not increase value significantly in the short run.  The only true reason to collect bait/utility fishing knives is because you want to.  And in the case of most modern bait knives, they’re inexpensive so why not buy two or three, a couple for the tackle box, and one for the collection.  If you’re an angler and you collect knives then this makes perfect sense!

Above: The DOZ-ALL was a bait knife before they ever started making bait knives!  Stamped from a single piece of "Swedish Steel" these inexpensive knives are becoming hard to find. (The blade tip is designed as a hook remover)

Bait knives:  Who makes them?

As part of my research into bait knives, I performed several online searches using the term bait knife.  I also searched for bait knives in numerous online shopping venues such as eBay, Amazon, ESTY, etc.  Finally I searched popular outdoor stores such as Lunkers, Bass Pro-Shop,  Cabela’s, and even Walmart. This gave me a list of several companies that sell a product marketed as a Bait Knife.    The list below is the list of companies that have attached their name to a product sold as a bait knife.

After determining who currently markets a knife as a bait knife, I looked around for companies that have or currently make a knife that contains many of the attributes of a good bait knife and compiled a list of these companies as well.

As can be expected, the list is not exhaustive.  I suspect it is actually just the tip of the iceberg.  I also suspect that if the demand for better quality bait knives increases well known knife makers will also join the fray and tackle companies may also offer more variety in the bait knives they currently sell.