Welcome Home...THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF OUR COMMUNITY

iKnife Collector

The online community of knife collectors, A Knife Family Forged in Steel

Show us your fishing knives

Most of my fish knives have already been posted over inKnife Patterns so I'm ot going to re-post them here. But as this is Social Group called i Knife Collectors it seems we do need a discussion where anglers can show off there fishing knives! Let's seem 'em all. Doesn't matter if it is a fixed blade or folder -- vintage or modern, -- collectable or user -- fancy or plain -- just show 'em off! Lets especially show off those knives that live in the tackle box or at the processing station!

Camillus WWII Army and Navy Air Corps Emergency Knife, Rapala Fillett, Shakespeare Utility, and W.R. Case & Sons Fish Knife

5 members like this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on June 17, 2015 at 17:36

Surprised that no knives have shown up yet. Despite what some people think, there is a wide variety of fixed blade knives made for fishing, not to mention the variety you find in folding fish-knives. One of my current passions is fixed blade utility fishing knives and bait knives. I recently bought this one at the local flea market (Swap-O-Rama) Not only was in the pretty good shape, it is made by Colonial and has a souvenir "Starved Rock, Illinois" sheath. This was not something I was going to pass up for $8, especially in this condition!

I've got close to 30 fixed blades that were designed for or marketed with the angler in mind and no two are exactly alike. The variety is truly amazing!

FeaturedPermalink Reply by Charles Sample on June 19, 2015 at 10:20

Here is my latest fish knife.

Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on June 19, 2015 at 10:33

Very Cool, Charles. Did you have Case put it on the blade or did you have it done after market?

FeaturedPermalink Reply by Charles Sample on June 19, 2015 at 12:29

Thanks Tobias. It was done by xxCutlery. They shipped the knife two days after I placed the order.

http://www.xxcutlery.com/

Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on July 8, 2015 at 21:10

I'll try and get this moving along a bit. Here is one of my bait/utility fishing fixed blades. Collecting fixed blade knives designed for the fisherman has become a bit of obsession of mine. The knife below is E. J. Ajax & Son DOZ-ALL

Here are my notes on the knife:

E. J. Ajax & Sons DOZ-ALL

First impressions:

Wow -- It really does “doz-all” and so much more! This knife was ahead of its time and could easily be a handy little survival tool. I’m truly not sure why this gadget didn’t catch on.

The Blade:

No doubt about it, it is a stamped stainless steel blade and it most definitely full tang! The fine edge of the clip point blade became razor sharp with a few swipes of a ceramic rod. As this is old knife from the 1950s. I have no idea what kind of steel was used. Ajax describes it as Swedish Steel. I have contacted the company in hopes of finding out what that means.

The spine on the knife is actually a saw blade with the teeth forming an alternating off-set pattern. It does pretty well on wood but, like today’s serrated edges it can also be used to scale fish. The spine also includes a cap lifter – something commonly found on fishing knives beginning in the 1930s. The choil (notch) in front of the guard works as a line cutter if one wanted one. While mine was a dull it was easy enough to remedy with a round file.

A notch has been cut into the tip of the blade for use as a hook remover. As the blade is quite wide, I’m not sure of the useful ness of this remover. I assume trying to put this large a blade down the gullet of a small fish will kill it. However with larger, toothy fish the remover might be of some use with practice. Also with practice the tip notch might be useful in hooking a pot handle to remove it from a camp fire.

The Handle:

The handle is made from the same sheet of steel as the blade. It was stamped and bent to form a comfortable oval shape handle. As it is steel, it might be a little slippery when wet. However this can easily be remedied by wrapping it in friction tape or cord wrapping it. The cap lifter and the small stamped out bottom guard aids in keeping the hand from slipping on the blade. The handle also has a lanyard hole punched near the pommel to allow the user to add a lanyard. Being hollow, yet full tang adds quite a bit of versatility for those with imagination.

The Scabbard:

The knife did not come with a scabbard. I’m not sure if it was originally sold with one or not – I suspect not as I’ve yet to see one offered with a sheath. I plan on making one for mine from materials that would have been state of the art for the 1950s (Plastic!)

End of the day:

The first thing I noticed when I got the knife in my hands was how comfortable it is to hold. Obviously, as the handle is made of steel, it is going to conduct heat (and cold) readily so the weather will have some effect on handling it but this can be taken care of by wrapping it para-cord. Speaking of which, the offset blade can be taken care of by adding a grip material opposite the reverse side of the fold if this is an issue for you. What I really like about it is the hollow steel handle. It makes it relatively easy to turn the knife into a spear! But seriously, best of all is the blade seems to be pretty good steel that can hold a decent edge and the spine has a usable saw/scaler. The only downfall is you need to provide you own sheath.

Specifications:

Name: DOZ-ALL
Brand: E. J. Ajax & Sons
Country of Manufacture: USA
Pattern: DOZ-ALL
Blade Steel: Swedish Steel
Length, overall: 9 [22.9 cm]
Length, blade: 4.5 in [11.4 cm]
Blade Style: Multi-function Clip point, fine edge, saw-scaler spine, Cap-lifter
Tang: Full
Handle: Hollow, Swedish Steel
Lanyard hole: Yes
Sheath: Not furnished

Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on July 23, 2015 at 9:09

Another of my old fishing knives, this one is the "Fishweigh" First up is the advertisement for the knife:

If only it took a matter of seconds to turn this into an accurate beam scale. I fiddled around with it in my basement, using actual weights and while it was reasonably accurate so were my unreliable "spring scales" I can't even imagine fiddling around with this on a river bank or a rocking boat! Which might explain why it never really caught on. Did I mention it is one heavy sucker!

The knife in the sheath

The Fishweigh next to one of those Honest/Dishonest float knives with an integrated spring scale. Both are reasonably accurate scales despite their age. The blade on the fishweigh is larger, heavier and has a better edge.

The weighted handle of the Fishweigh slides up and down the the tang and is used to weigh the fish A gaff hook is inserted in the fish's mouth and then suspended from one of three notches marked along the spine of the blade. The notches are marked one, two and four pounds.

You guesstimate the fish's weight and then suspend it from the respective notch and then slide the weighted handle along the tang until you the two sides balance.

The wire running along the top of the tang is used to suspend the scale and also aids in locking the weighted handle onto the knife. The wire gaff for the knife was long since lost but it was easy enough to make one from an old metal coat hanger.

The Fishweigh was fairly well made and works well for weighing fish but frankly, it is too heavy for processing fish. This, combined with the popularity of spring scales doomed it to the sea of fishing curiosities

FeaturedPermalink Reply by Charles Sample on July 23, 2015 at 12:04

Interesting Tobias.

FeaturedPermalink Reply by Charles Sample on September 16, 2015 at 15:22

Here is my newest fish knife. I received it today. It is a Camco 7-11.

Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on September 16, 2015 at 15:35

Nice one Charles. I need to take some snapshots. I've got new knives but I've been so occupied with other stuff that I just don't have the time! The little free time I do have I spend fishing. Hopefully things will slow down a bit and I can take some photos!

FeaturedPermalink Reply by Charles Sample on September 16, 2015 at 15:39

Hey Tobias, fishing is important. Gotta get that in!

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on September 16, 2015 at 18:42