Electric Fillet Knife Review, from an old fart!

Still the best fillet knife I have ever owned and still love and treasure is the original Uncle Henry Schrade USA167 Very easy steel to work with, holds an edge plus last a life time. This blade with me keeping it razor sharp on a stone and Steele is priceless not even sure Schrade is still made in the USA
But this post is about the electric knife….from an old fart’s stand point, please keep that in mind

I used a Mr. Twister since they came out, must of have been in my 20’s. It finally puked when I hit 50 Now being the proud owner of the Rapala electric knife and having a good number of fish fry’s cleaned with it…..here are my findings.

Using either knife……let the blades do the work, if your forcing the cut, you are screwing up the filet

The Twister has a faster RPM to the blade which I miss and, I never noticed the motor to heat up. Exactly why it lasted forever! Heat is not good on electric motors

My findings with a comfortable number of fish using the Rapala has some good points along with some issues….IMO

I don’t like the release button for the blades on top of the handle, this is where my thumb should be to guide the knife.
I don’t like the way the motor heats up, 8 fish and I feel it needs a break. Heat kills electric motor life so…anyone have one still running after 15years….. that would be good news to my ears

I didn’t think I would like the pointed blades…wrong, that is a good selling point for me now. Zips out belly bones like a charm Much better than the Mr. Twister.

They both zip the meat off the skin just fine but like mentioned before, the twister is faster!!!

Being left handed, my first filet comes with the back of the fish facing me. I also noticed it helps a lot to keep the cutting board in position at the very edge of your work station. It helps a great deal to be able to get the handle of your electric filet knife parallel with your cuts.

The Rapala I received from the wife (the one I want is yellow and green honey ) came as a Rapala with case. So far it has treated me well, just sharing what I have found to be different between the 2.

With all that crap said….it’s what you are use too, what last, and your style.
Mine would be Old Style

Chime in electric dudes It’s the wave of the future

mister twister or bust…

Yellow and Green….how could you miss it honey

I have had a twister for about 12 years. It is starting to get hot and the trigger doesn’t always work. But this knife has been a good one. One of my sons gave the other son a rapala for xmas. I looked at it and liked the idea of the pointed blades. I will try when I go back to WI. I need to buy a new, but will have to use the Rapala before I make my decision because the twister has been a good knife.

My old one burned up so now i’m using the Mr. Twister. The only thing i struggled with at first was cutting the rib bones out. I’m used to the curved end my other knife had which I think was an american angler or something like that. I’m sure with time i’ll get the ribs perfected with it.

I agree with you on the blade release on the rapala, not the best spot to have it by any means. Did you get the one that has the attatchments for the ac for your vehicle and for a battery? Well that’s the one that i got and wasn’t a big fan of it. I didn’t like the plastic carrying case that it came with. It was a very tight fit for the knife and the cord. With that, after each use you would really have to cram the knife and wrap the cord fairly tight to get the knife in the slot and also for the fronts to lock. Mine only lasted 2 years and there is now a short in it where the cord comes into the knife because of having to cram that cord in the case. The mister twister is a good knife as well and somehow mine came up missing after a fishing trip so I needed one asap and got the American Angler knife. I have had good luck with it so far even though I don’t believe it will last long because like you said it gets awful hot after 8-10 fish and that is definately not a good thing. We’ll see I guess.

I use the American Angler electric knife as well. The main reason I do is because of the Shark Blade (the cheapest knives do not come with a Shark Blade). It works very well for me from panfish to walleyes. The biggest concern is the heating up of the motor. I have tried other knives but did not like the shorter and stiffer pointed blades that most come with. I could not flex them the way I like while cleaning panfish. I probably clean fish somewhat differently than some people, therefore requiring a more flexible blade.

Yellow and green-same one for at least 10 years. Oh and Budweiser for even longer.

Im on my second rapala now, first one lasted about 6 years, I just figured I was catching that many fish, but it started on fire last spring. Ended up buying another one, but kind of wish I would of switched to mr twister. I hate the rapalas carrying case, you can never get the cord back in, I also hate the safty button on trigger, but all in all you cant beat electric for speed.

I had the Rapala cordless which I really liked. As you mention the blade design is very nice. However after about 4 years the batteries started to lose life so the FW got me 2 new ones as a birthday gift. They didn’t last but a year in fact one of them wouldn’t even charge right out of the box and we got a replacement. After doing some research and reading lots of reviews the Rapala cordless just didn’t get rave reviews out there in fillet land. So I now have the Mr. Twister and like it but I do like the Rapala blades better.

I own both and used both yesterday on some nice 10″-12″ Perch
IMO the Green/Yellow Mr. Twister kicks it due to the higher RPM and i use the longer more flexible blade.
Plus it was alot cheaper than the Rapala rechargable. As long as i have an outlet nearby, the Mr. Twister will always go back to being my first choice

Has anyone had any experience with the berkley line of electric knives? I notice they have a similar blade style as the rapalas.

Green/Yellow here! I clean a lot of fish and for the price they cannot be beat…Tried American Angler and Rapala… I’m sticking to the E Fisherman…

Hold your fillets at a slight angle and start with the corner of the ribcage…they zip out very slick!

The Rapalas to me have the sharpest blades going and easiest to cut thru bigger ribs on some fish, but don`t hold up ( for me anyway ). I have an American Angler now and a little disappointed in the sharpness of the blades it does not cut near as fast as the Rapala blades. I purchased there long skinny blade thinking it would cut faster…no, but does a excellent job on panfish just still slower then the Rapala.

On my salary, unlike Mr. Clark’s, I cannot afford an electric knife I’ve tried a couple and just really like my plain ‘ol fillet knife.

But, a funny story…

Many years ago I was helping a lady in a store find a Christmas gift for her husband. She said that he wanted an electric knife sharpener. I began to walk her over towards the small appliances (where the electric sharpeners are) and she mumbled, “When I bought that electric knife for him two years ago, the guy said he’d never have to sharpen it.” I busted out laughing and then explained the situation to her. She had a good sense of humor about it.

It’s going to be back to twister once my rap burns up. Seems like every time I clean fish it is about to start on fire. However it gives me plenty of time to drink busch light while I wait for it to cool down

I have one of the blue Mister Twister salt water electrics and have never used it. If anyone is interested in buying it reasonably they can pm me.

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Has anyone had any experience with the berkley line of electric knives? I notice they have a similar blade style as the rapalas.

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My buddy has the Berkley blades in his Mr. Twister and it was not that much of a learning curve for me to use it. Went real smooth, he even commented on getting the “y” bones out of pike with it easier than he had been doing it before.

I’ve seen how well electric knives work on perch and walleye. What about Gils?

Zips out Gills and Crappies just a well

i bought a cabelas one because it was on sale at the one in owatana. thing is a hunk of crap. mr twister all the way.

I received a Mister Twister a few years back. Used it once at Everts, got a drop of water in the wrong spot and that was the end of that electric knife. Although it did work nice on the walleyes & saugers we did clean prior to it’s premature death.

A few months ago, I bought a rapala (in the case) from Dick’s Sporting Goods. After using it twice, and letting Greybeard use it once, I was so disappointed that I went and got my money back. No kidding, the blades were flat out dull. As for the plastic carrying case, two thumbs down for not being able to easily get the cord back inside.

My wife bought me an American Angler for Christmas, which I have not used yet because I much prefer a plain 6″ rapala fillet knife (manually operated) for panfish. It will get its chance soon enough when open water season comes around.

Guess I just have bad luck but so far, the tried and true 6″ & 9″ manual fillet knives have never let me down.

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Zips out Gills and Crappies just a well

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Do you run them lengthwise and include the ribs then take the ribs out in a sepate step?

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Zips out Gills and Crappies just a well

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Do you run them lengthwise and include the ribs then take the ribs out in a sepate step?

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Yes, I fillet off the side, then remove the ribs, then remove from the meat from the skin. there are times we scale the fish for something different.

I cut fillet then flip and take meat off then remove rib bones. Works great for pannies.

Heard of a lodge/resort that swears by Black & Decker model electric knives.

No kidding.

They’ve tried them all and the Black & Decker model holds up the best.

Don’t know about any other particulars. They are mostly looking for durability/longevity, and the Black & Deckers seem to hold up well.

4th Post. Woo Hoo!

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4th Post. Woo Hoo!

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Glad to have you aboard!

I bought my Mr. Twister back in the 90’s. When I lived in SD, we killed everything we caught pretty much. That thing got a great work out. Still use it today! Got and American Angler for Xmas here a few years back. We use it to carve ham.

The only thing I use a regular knife for now days is removing the rib bones after the fillets have soaked in some cold water for a bit.

Can you do this with an electric knife?
web page

Yes!

I’m use to filleting a little bigger gills however