Boning Knives | Flexible or Stiff Blades for Deboning Fish & Meat

Kai USA Shun Classic Boning Filet Knife Whether you’re experimenting with complex culinary projects like the Tur-duck-hen (a deboned chicken cooked inside a deboned duck cooked inside a deboned turkey) or simply upgrading a cheaper cut of meat by trimming out gristle and bone, boning and fillet knives are essential. A slender blade removes unwanted flaws without making a mess of the rest of the meat.

Boning knives allow the cut to follow the bone, separating the meat with little waste. The narrow knife twists easily to follow tight curves and accurately trims off fat and skin. This is the knife to use for shaping tenderloin or deboning poultry — stiffer versions work best for larger and tougher cuts like mutton.

Also here are the fillet knives any fisherman knows and uses. With more flexible blades, the fillet knife shapes itself to the ribs of the fish, slipping the meat from the bones neatly. In expert hands this can be the most efficient way of cleaning the fish — save the bones for soup stock instead of picking them out at the dinner table. Match the size of the knife to the size of the fish and you can fillet anything from pan fish to king salmon.

Some of Our Favorites

Here’s one place where I definitely prefer laser cut steel over forged — the Global Boning knife has an unusual handle style that works well. Seamless, efficient and razor sharp.

Damascus steel and a VG-10 cutting edge make the Shun Classic Boning Filet knife perfect for tough cuts and delicate work.

See All of our Boning Knife Reviews Below

Wusthof Gourmet Fish Fillet Knife | Lightweight 9 Inch | Stainless Steel Kitchen Cutlery

Much lighter than the typical forged Wusthof knife, this Wusthof Gourmet 9-Inch Fish Fillet Knife features a slender blade of razor edged and flexible laser-cut stainless steel. The high carbon blade of Wusthof's special no-stain X50CrMoV15 alloy steel holds an edge well and is easily re-sharpened with a handheld honing steel.

The ...

Messermeister Meridian Elite Boning Knife | Full Tang Flexible Forged 6 Inch

Messermeister's Meridian Elite 6" boning knife overcomes one of the drawbacks of what is otherwise a very efficient forged pattern. Many of the older German cutlery patterns feature the same full bolster forged blades. That makes these old designs very strong, but the bolster does sometimes interfere with the work. In a ...

Global Boning Japanese Knife | Flexible Full Tang 4 Inch

If you're looking for a flexible Western-style boning knife with the performance of Japanese steel, look no further.

Global knives were the first mass-marketed Japanese kitchen knives aimed at the Western market. They won fans in restaurant kitchens everywhere with their mix of lighter weight, thinner blades, high performance molybdenum/vanadium steel which ...

Shun Pro Deba Slicing Knife | Japanese Cutlery | VG-10 Damascus 6 1/2 Inch

Primarily used for deboning and slicing raw or cooked meat, fish, and poultry, the Shun Pro Deba knife with a 6 1/2" plain edge is one of the fundamental blades of the Japanese kitchen, dating back to the Edo period in the city of Sakai. Once famous for fine ...

Kai USA Shun Classic Boning Filet Knife | Japanese VG-10 Damascus 6 Inch

A part of the Shun Classic series, this boning knife is forged in Shun's famous Damascus stainless steel, but with a profile slim enough to give this blade the slight flexibility you need for boning and fileting meat, poultry, and seafood.

The build is the same one used for ...

Chicago Cutlery Metropolitan Boning Knife | Cheap Kitchen Cutlery

I have an old Chicago Cutlery cooks knife which is an amazing example of what American knifemakers once regularly produced. Unfortunately, this knife isn't a suitable heir to that reputation. To be fair, this is an inexpensive "specialty" knife aimed at the casual home cook who might use a boning ...