Reeds-leech lake fillet knife

I received a leech lake fillet knife for Christmas. As you would expect I was ecstatic. Until I used it. There is virtually no edge on it. One inch of the center of the knife was sharp and the rest had little to no edge. Needless to say, back to my $10 rapala knife. I thought maybe a defective knife. Call reeds, get a new one two days later, no big deal. Once again inspect the knife. No edge again. $100 for a filet knife, I expect some quality. So I am giving up on them. Also, Reeds is having me pay the return shipping. Seems petty, but I will be keeping my future sales to my local Cabelas.

So my question is.. what is a quality fillet knife? Have others experienced the poor quality of the leech lake fillet knife?

Mine is super sharp and holds an edge for a long time. It’s also from Reed’s. First time I’ve heard of a problem. Something must have changed as far as manufacturing?

should have asked for a bottle of scotch…. other than that, I have nothing constructive to add. 2 in a row, something changed.

i have 4 leech lake knives. ALL awesome and razor sharp. i bought them from reeds at the ice show years ago when the dad made them. i have heard some grumblings the newer knives aren’t quiet the same quality since the kid took over.

I got my leach knife in 2005 never realy had good luck keeping an edge on it. After looking at the steel and seeing bits of steel missing from the edge I set it aside and replaced it with a Wustoff 6 inch boning knife.
I will use Leach knife for panfish but the Wustoff gets the most work.

This is the first I have heard anything negative about the Leech Lake knife. Too bad – seems like nothing stays good for long.

Are you sure it’s a real Leech Lake knife? Plenty of look-a-likes out there.

-J.

Jon Jordan wrote:

Are you sure it’s a real Leech Lake knife? Plenty of look-a-likes out there.

-J.

Reeds advertises a real Don Canney knife on their website.

I’d suggest you call the knife company direct Tel: 319.396.5952 and see what if anything they will do to stand behind their product.

When Don was alive he would always do free sharpening on his knives. One could either bring your knife to a show where he was at or send it in to be sharpened.

Could you sharpen it yourself?

Its a raw deal to get a new knife that’s dull, but rather than Mickey Mouse around with it, I’d just put an edge on it myself and start using it.

Grouse

Send it to the company they will sharpen it. Never had any issues with mine. When I’m in walker stop in they sharpen for free

I tried my new Leech Lake knife purchased at Reeds for Christmas last night. Backside of tip not sharpened main blade has a small sharpened section but would not cut thru the pike. I am contacting Reeds and Manufacturer this is totally non acceptable. A butter knife would do less damage to the meat. It is so dull that it was unable to take the skin off. A most disappointing purchase.

Mwal

Really? I don’t think I’ve ever bought a knife that I didn’t sharpen out of the box before use…including my Leech Lake.

What will you do when it dulls after filleting a couple dozen fish?

I have a Gatco sharpening kit that works wonders. It’s variable-angle so can handle tough work blades to fine filet knives.

I’ve heard similar things about the quality taking some hits after the dad passed and the kids took over, I believe they’re now made out of some place in Iowa instead of up north? Could be wrong though. I have one of the old, “dad made” ones, and I really like it. I don’t use the back/top side of the blade much anymore, but it cuts like butter after I give it a few strokes through the sharpening tool. I can’t say I remember what it was like when I first got it, but now I’ll say that it cuts like butter while it’s sharp, but does need to get sharpened decently often. That’s not really a complaint, because it takes 30 seconds and I’ve had it for probably ten years.

I sent the owner of the company of custom cutlery an email with a link to this thread.
I dont want to believe for a second this kind of crap is coming from an Iowa based company.
I hope to have a reply from him soon,he has a membership here and I am hoping he will address it personally.

Iowaboy1

Thanks. I have emailed the leechlake knives email and left phone messages number goes directly into a voice mail that just says leave a message no name or anything so who know if it a good number. Will wait till next week otherwise gonna send it back to Reeds and move on to another Brand

MWal

MWal,
Go to cabelas, get the Wusthof. Best $109 I’ve ever spent. Thing is razor sharp and cuts pile like butter!

To start with the Leech Lake knives are still made by us and are still ground and sharpened all by us totally free hand. There has been no intentional change in quality … our standards have always been to produce only the best.

I am curious as to how you are judging the edge? Did you cut with it? or are you going by the feel of a bur on the edge? Or the visible grind line on the edge?

We sharpen to around 1200 grit (16 micron) before buffing the fine edge to a razors edge. The final buffing can buff away the visible grind lines at the final edge and if this is what you are judging it by the odds are your knife is actually sharp but may not look like it.

It has been our experience that some people feel the edge and don’t feel a bur on the edge and consider it not sharp.

We have even had a few shipped to us by customers that didn’t feel the edge was good and when they arrived back to us we could literally shave our arms with them.

We are human and it is possible there was a problem with the sharpening but the person that does all of the sharpening on these knives (yes only 1 person does this) has been grinding and sharpening knives full time for over 34 years.

Mwal, I am not sure which emails you tried but here are the emails to each of them that I know are good contacts.

Lisa Canney – [email protected]

Mike Canney – [email protected]

Keep in mind they both do have other jobs and may not be available immediately but they should respond to you.

If you have concerns you are also welcome to contact me at [email protected] and I will try to help resolve any issues.

The two I received, could not shave arm hair, or cut into a fillet. As stated above, the only sharp spot was roughly 1″ towards the center of the knife. The top edge looked beveled, but not a sharpened edge.

Both knives were engraved 2018, maybe check that batch?

The Wusthof I purchased was extremely sharp!

Jim Plowman,
Kevin Canney got in touch with me. HE said to return knife for a refund. He said they are working on QC issue.

My knife also said 2018 on it and was sharpened or not sharpened like David Blais post.

I asked that he contact me when they are ready with new sharpened knives. I still like the design and handle. The sheath also is very nice.

Mwal

Can you take a picture of the knife an send it to me @ [email protected] ?

I know they were working on trying to increase their numbers by having some produced elsewhere … I am not sure if they ever got any of those out or not but I can tell the difference if I see it.

This has been my major concern with them adding an additional place of production … I don’t want to take the heat from work that isn’t even ours.

I have attached a picture of some of the knives that we DID NOT produce that are still official Leech Lake knives. They are supposed to be the exact same blades but the handles are machine produced and the sharpening is not up to par.

There may be one other color, Hawkeye (yellow & black) I believe, that I don’t have a picture of that one.

I will also have a chat with our sharpening guy here about this but I know he checks each knife on a paper when finished – on every knife he sharpens.

If it is a problem at our shop it will be resolved.

If anyone is the area of our shop in Marengo Iowa, you can always stop by here. We sharpen for free anytime and not just our products.

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Mwal, We also produce that sheath from scratch … It is my Wife’s primary job in our small family business. So thanks for the compliment.

Even the fillets that are not being produced by use will be in our sheaths.

We produced 1200 sheaths for them with out knives.

That is how I first found they were going to have knives produced elsewhere.

Jim,
Do you guys sell a knife with the top sharpened at your Iowa location? I would be wiling to buy one. I will be working down that way in a couple weeks

Hi David, Sorry we have an agreement to not produce the Leech Lake design in our own products. But if you haven’t returned that last Leech Lake fillet we could give it a proper sharpening for you.

Since it is a 2018 I would be almost certain it was our work.

So far all of the fillets that we didn’t produce will be marked 2017. This will keep things interesting because we also produced about 1700 fillets with 2017.

We work a crap load of hours and our sharpening guy probably got a little tired.

Reeds always hits us with big orders and always wants them yesterday so a few might have got by with less than perfect edges.

Like I said – I am going to have a chat with our guy to make sure it isn’t happening again.

Mine was green and black with 2018 on the blade.

Mwal

I have one stamped 2007 that a person could literally shave with, no exaggeration. They are a great product and I hope the quality continues

Just got one marked 1985 from ebay I don’t think it has ever been used or sharpened it is very sharp. And the best part is I got it for $30.

Michael C. Winther wrote:

Really? I don’t think I’ve ever bought a knife that I didn’t sharpen out of the box before use…including my Leech Lake.

What will you do when it dulls after filleting a couple dozen fish?

I have a Gatco sharpening kit that works wonders. It’s variable-angle so can handle tough work blades to fine filet knives.

I have used mine for 3 years. It has never touched a sharpener. I am just now thinking of sending it in to be sharpened. If you use the knife as intended (using the back side to make the first cuts) the blade lasts a very long time.

Jim Plowman wrote:

To start with the Leech Lake knives are still made by us and are still ground and sharpened all by us totally free hand. There has been no intentional change in quality … our standards have always been to produce only the best.

I am curious as to how you are judging the edge? Did you cut with it? or are you going by the feel of a bur on the edge? Or the visible grind line on the edge?

We sharpen to around 1200 grit (16 micron) before buffing the fine edge to a razors edge. The final buffing can buff away the visible grind lines at the final edge and if this is what you are judging it by the odds are your knife is actually sharp but may not look like it.

It has been our experience that some people feel the edge and don’t feel a bur on the edge and consider it not sharp.

We have even had a few shipped to us by customers that didn’t feel the edge was good and when they arrived back to us we could literally shave our arms with them.

We are human and it is possible there was a problem with the sharpening but the person that does all of the sharpening on these knives (yes only 1 person does this) has been grinding and sharpening knives full time for over 34 years.

The edge threw me off at first. I remember making a post about mine not being sharp. Then I used it on a fish and was amazed.

It’s too bad the company is sacrificing quality increase output by using another facility.

Jonesy wrote:

If you use the knife as intended (using the back side to make the first cuts) the blade lasts a very long time.

Sorry but I treat my equipment with respect and use them as intended. I have no reason to fabricate my experience with the leach lake knife. Its a good knife and thats why I use it on pan fish, aside from that the Wustoff gets the most use. Even with the Wustoff the edge needs to be fine tuned when cleaning perch but nowhere near as often as the leach.
I am going of my own acconts and experiences.

1hl&sinker wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Black98TransAm wrote:</div>
If you use the knife as intended (using the back side to make the first cuts) the blade lasts a very long time.

Sorry but I treat my equipment with respect and use them as intended. I have no reason to fabricate my experience with the leach lake knife. Its a good knife and thats why I use it on pan fish, aside from that the Wustoff gets the most use. Even with the Wustoff the edge needs to be fine tuned when cleaning perch but nowhere near as often as the leach.
I am going of my own acconts and experiences.

Seems like you have taken some offense to my response. It wasn’t directed at you if that is the case.

Like you I also have no reason to fabricate my response. Using the method Don Canney describes in his youtube video I have gone 3 years (this Christmas) of use and the blade has never kissed a sharpener. I will be sending it in though in the coming weeks to be sharpened. I have been so happy with the knife that I purchased one as a gift for my Dad.