Kermode fillet knife is released

An online development project

As many of you know, who followed the development of our fillet knife since we started in early September 2014, the requirements and design were significantly influenced by contributions of the online community, in particular through threads on three forums: HuntingBC, BCFishingReports and BladeForums. As of our last post, we were waiting on feedback from 5 teams who each got an identical prototype to try out. The results that came back by mid November were extraordinary. Other than a need to fill out the handle a bit more and a request to soften the sheath edges and widen the belt loop, the knife got rave reviews for the job it was designed for: larger fish like salmon and halibut.

The first production runs of the new knife, known now as the Kermode, took place last week, bringing to a close a satisfying project.

Requirements and design input

There were many good suggestions that helped make the knife what it became. Key input came from these forum users:

• Hunting BC: ultramafic, sasqman, gatehouse, sarge789, Mikey Rafiki, Everett, 835, amphibious, markrfarley, sofa king, adriaticum, srupp, new hunter, longstonec, steel_ram, M.Dean, Kalum, IronNoggin, DANOSON, Danny
• BCFishingReports: VE7TOY, Spoonman, gidyup, professori, arrgh!, llevelzero, jpar247, Pippen, BigfishMike
• Bladeforums: Scott Hanson, BTacblades, protourist, nevertwice, lazy otter
• north arm blog: Paul.Moravec, Gary Harris

Special thanks to prototype evaluation team

We’re very appreciative of the gracious cooperation we had from the guys all around BC who evaluated the five second round prototypes and provided detailed reports. IronNoggin, Spoonman, Steven Rupp (srupp), Garry Rosell, Joe Gluck (The Daily Catch), Vic Carrao (STS Guiding Service)

Features present in the final design were influenced as follows:

• 8-9 ” blade: ultramafic, adriaticum, gidyup, gatehouse, sarge789, longstonec, Gary Harris
• thin, strong, flexible blade, optimized for slicing (ie low angle): ultramafic, sofa king, adriaticum, gatehouse, srupp, Paul.Moravec
• easy handle grip in wet conditions: gatehouse, 835, markrfarley, ultramafic, steel_ram, Paul.Moravec, Scott Hanson, jpar247
• fish scale theme on scales to give texture/grip/style: BTacblades
• medium-hard steel (say about 58 HRC), holds edge well and takes an edge well: gatehouse, sofa king, adriaticum, longstonec
• wider blade at heel to  maintain stiffness: Mikey Rafiki
• colourful/hi-vis: sofa king, steel_ram
• G10 scales: jpar247
• lanyard hole: longstonec, jpar247
• Long continuous curve on the blade, including tip, so the fillet can be cut in one stroke to prevent hacks: steel_ram, 835, Kalum, protourist,VE7TOY, gidyup, llevelzero, adriaticum
• hook on handle butt for control: Scott Hanson, gidyup, professori
• Flare outward at forward end of the scale (ie away from tang surface) for better grip when lying flat: 835, Danny
• removable belt loop: lazy otter

Thanks again to everyone mentioned above and to all the others who took interest in the project along the way!