Shelter Cove and 8CR17MOV

[Saucerito]

Excited to see a Spyderco Phil Wilson Filet Knife. Anyone know how 8CR17MOV compares to 8CR13MOV? I’d imagine it is more corrosion resistant as it should have more chromium. Based on the description in the reveal, it looks like a specific heat treatment was used to maintain adequate flexibility.

I would have preferred to see a plastic sheath with drain hole for this given the knife will be around water and fish guts.

I’d also be curious how this metallurgy compares to something like a Dexter Russell Filet Knife. Those seem to be the gold standard among fisherman on the gulf coast.

[Scandi Grind]

I’d also be curious how this metallurgy compares to something like a Dexter Russell Filet Knife.

Hah! This was literally my first thought when I looked at this knife. I've been thinking about a fillet knife and I hold Dexter in high regard, then the Shelter Cove was revealed and it has got me thinking. Hmmmmm...

[Scandi Grind]

Whoa, I just looked at the price of the Shelter Cove. $90 is a bit of a hard sell for me coming from China. I know it is designed by a great custom knife maker, has a leather sheath, and I bet the G-10 handles are nice, but I don't actually need those things. I am now almost disappointed that I probably don't need to debate this as an option.

[zhyla]

Whoa, I just looked at the price of the Shelter Cove. $90 is a bit of a hard sell for me coming from China.

Where did you think a $90 knife was coming from?

Honestly this is a very strange comment. That’s a decent price for a Chinese made fixed blade from a name brand company. Especially a collaboration. Sure, you can get cheaper fixed blades, but not designed by Phil Wilson.

The $60 Bow River is a fantastic knife if $90 is too much. I love mine.

[Scandi Grind]

I can get something from Sweden, Finland, New Zealand, or the US for cheaper, as long as I am not worried about having nice handles or sheath. This would be a pretty rough and tumble knife for me, and potentially niche, so niceness just isn't that important.

[Snacktime]

Pretty sure this is named after Shelter Cove Ca which is a fantastic fishing spot. You get beach launched, go out into the deep channel and absolutely hammer the salmon. Then bottom drag the sand for halibut for a while and call it day. We use to fish the area before the pot growers moved in and we had to change locations.

[Fireman]

I almost bought a plot of land in Shelter Cove many years ago. It’s a place to be if you love nature, the coast and hate people. Is there any reason this model can’t be built in multiple countries? Let’s pretend that you could buy a Chinese model of this knife and a Japanese or Taiwan model I. A different steel. I would gladly pay double the price for a LC200N model made in Seki City.

[Surfingringo]

Does anyone have any experience with 8cr17? Inquiring minds want to know. Regarding Dexter Russel, meh, they’ll clean a fish but I find I have to resharpen way more than I’d care to. I’m hoping the combination of this steel and Spyderco’s heat treat will raise the performance bar on sub $100 fillet knife performance. I’m looking forward to this one!

[ChrisinHove]

Does anyone have any experience with 8cr17? Inquiring minds want to know. Regarding Dexter Russel, meh, they’ll clean a fish but I find I have to resharpen way more than I’d care to. I’m hoping the combination of this steel and Spyderco’s heat treat will raise the performance bar on sub $100 fillet knife performance. I’m looking forward to this one!

Hey Lance! Long time no see!

I’m looking forward to your opinions on this one.

[burley_c]

Where did you think a $90 knife was coming from?

Honestly this is a very strange comment. That’s a decent price for a Chinese made fixed blade from a name brand company.

It's not a strange comment at all. In the $90 range Spyderco has a lot knives that aren't made in China. As has been discussed in the China thread, a lot of folks on this board avoid buying things from China not because of quality or perceived quality, but because they see China as a bad actor and feel dirty sending their money there. For a really good price a lot folks will hold their nose and buy a Chinese knife, but once you get into the price range where you can buy something from the USA, Japan, or Sweden, a lot of people will just buy from one of those countries.

[Scandi Grind]

Does anyone here use fillet knives outside of a fish processing capacity? I am wondering if they can work well for other food tasks perhaps? I have never had a proper fillet knife and it would be pretty niche for me, so I am curious how versatile they may be able to be or not.

[Snacktime]

Does anyone here use fillet knives outside of a fish processing capacity? I am wondering if they can work well for other food tasks perhaps? I have never had a proper fillet knife and it would be pretty niche for me, so I am curious how versatile they may be able to be or not.

They are really good for meat processing, if you game process they are a nice addition. The flexibility of the blade is fantastic for skinning and cleaning pelts. I have tried to use my fillet knife in the kitchen but I always transition to shorter blade blade.

Does anyone have any experience with 8cr17? Inquiring minds want to know. Regarding Dexter Russel, meh, they’ll clean a fish but I find I have to resharpen way more than I’d care to. I’m hoping the combination of this steel and Spyderco’s heat treat will raise the performance bar on sub $100 fillet knife performance. I’m looking forward to this one!

The steel should be fine, you want good blade flexibility which means a lower heat treatment. Budget steels tend have similar properties to higher end steels in this lower heat treatment range. Go look at Larrin charts, lower heat treatment the performance gap is much smaller.

Honestly it's **** near impossible to beat Swedish Sandvik 12C27 that Mora uses on their fillet knife. Its the Holy Grail of fillet knives.

[zhyla]

Where did you think a $90 knife was coming from?

Honestly this is a very strange comment. That’s a decent price for a Chinese made fixed blade from a name brand company.

It's not a strange comment at all. In the $90 range Spyderco has a lot knives that aren't made in China.

Spyderco fixed blades are always super expensive. Don’t ask me why. $90 Chinese Spyderco fixed blade is cheap. Not counting kitchen knives, the cheapest non-China fixed blade currently is the $130 Perrin Subway. Which isn’t too bad in our little bubble at least. But for some reason their fixed blades, despite having fewer parts and no moving parts to get right, are always more expensive than an analogous folder.

And no, Spyderco does not have “a lot” of knives in the $90 range. But the Delica still in that range.

[BornIn1500]

$90 Chinese Spyderco fixed blade is cheap.

But not cheap when compared to the Bow River at $52.50. I'm struggling to see how this is nearly double the price. 8cr17 instead of 8cr13 and the G10 is more contoured. Yea it's longer, but it's also thinner blade stock. Does all that really add another $40 in value? Also, remember that back in 2019, the Bow River debuted at $32.50. It flew off the shelves at that price. I couldn't wait to get one as soon as it dropped. I had high hopes for this Shelter Cove, but with the steep increase in cost compared to the $52.50 Bow River... I'm kind of thinking this will be a slow seller.

[Surfingringo]

Does anyone here use fillet knives outside of a fish processing capacity? I am wondering if they can work well for other food tasks perhaps? I have never had a proper fillet knife and it would be pretty niche for me, so I am curious how versatile they may be able to be or not.

I do all the time. When I designed a fillet knife for my use I purposely made it to be a functional kitchen knife too. I actually call it a “kitchen fillet” This was not terribly difficult given my taste for using wider and slightly more rigid blades for my fillet work. If I’m cleaning a mess of 2-3 pound snapper (or fresh water fish) then a narrow flexible design is very efficient. For a 50+ pound tuna, I work much better with a wider profile. A more narrow “buggy whip” fillet can kind of get lost in those big tuna loins…at least in my hands.

[zhyla]

$90 Chinese Spyderco fixed blade is cheap.

But not cheap when compared to the Bow River at $52.50.

The Bow River isn't a filet knife. I'm not sure why the Bow River price matters if you're shopping for filet knives.

I don't fish so I don't buy these knives. But I assume like literally every other knife niche there are options that are cheap and good, there are Spyderco knives that are expensive and good, and there are other brands that are even more expensive and good.

I suspect it will sell well enough with Phil Wilson's name on it.

[BornIn1500]

The Bow River isn't a filet knife. I'm not sure why the Bow River price matters if you're shopping for filet knives.

They're both made in China with basically the same steel, a G10 handle, a leather sheath, designed by the same person, and both sold by Spyderco. They're nearly identical aside from length and thinness of the blade. I think the comparison for price is justified.