Same here, they come with Rapala fillet knives. I was surprised how well they work, I even use them on the house knives I use for breaking down pork shoulders. Cheap too.

I just use a wet stone, run it across a few times it's good as new

If it's a SS knife you have to pay attention to it like a kid learning to walk.... let it get dull and you have to spend the time to get it back. Real steel knives you can dig a trench out in your back yard and bring the edge back to a razor with minimal time on a stone. Just remember sharpening steels or ceramics are only to realign your blade keeping it sharp longer if it's already dull you need to use stone course enough to take metal off to sharpen.

Another hint clean your sharpening device with a brush and soapwater, when you cross your blade on it metal compacts into it making it less effective. Another tip is don't cut straight down into a cutting surface especially glass plates and don't let your old lady take it outside to cut weeds out of sidewalk cracks.............

Just get a good American angler and go clean , I use a work shop to sharpen after a100 or so

I have a set of Apollo ceramic sticks , they work great.
Lansky makes something similar.
I never let the knife get dull , so it is easy to keep sharp.
Just a few passes before each session and it will shave.




MO

I used to have 1
they were pretty good on knifes, never tried it on a fillet knife

My wife bought me a Berkley electric filet knife from walmart. Best freaking filet knife ever! I was using one that my dad bought from sears in the 1970's. A GE electric. Worked good but the blades were dull and couldn't find replacement blades for a model that old. That new Berkley cuts through spine, ribs whatever you put it up against it cuts it.

+1 on the spyderco sharpmaker. Easy to learn, reproducible results. I have to write "sharp" in red ink on the knives I maintain with the sharp maker so my wife doesn't cut her fingers off with them.

I didnt read everything already posted but I do have some knowledge on the subject.

I work with Levensailor custom knives out of New braunfels. I market their knife sharpening system. Before I knew these guys all my knives were in poor shape. Even the knives I thought were sharp just werent.

Here is what we do to get that edge your looking for.

Start on a coarse wet stone. Raise a burr on one side before moving to the other side to raise a burr.

Once you have raised a burr on each side of the knife now you can move to the fine wet stone. Alternate sides going form hilt to tip always moving the spine away from you and thus rubbing the blade spine first.

After you have a nice fine edge that you would normally be happy with thats when its time to go to the stropping block and some stropping compund. Think barbers sharpning leather strap. You alternate strokes on the strop like the fine wet stone again going hilt to tip.

A fillet knife has a very thin egde unlike rope cutters which have a higher angle. On a filet knife I like about a 15 degree angle and on a rope cutter or EDC or general pourpose knife I like about a 17-20 degree blade.

I dont want this to be a sales post so if your interested in learning more or contacting me for product info please feel free. I guarantee your knife cant get sharper then what we offer. We also offer a $40.00 sharpening service which includes shipping.