Just bought 2 of the Dexter-Russell filet knives, one 8" wide and one 8" narrow. Sharp right out of the box, nice handle for maintaining grip and the blades appear flexible enough. I use a 6" Rapala with a spoon in the handle for cutting bait on the boat and cleaning fish. It's been a great knife and will shave the hair off your arm with occasional use of a V-metal sharpener. I've broken 2 knives (an 8" Buck and a 9.25" Iron mountain) in the past 2 weeks from applying downward pressure as I was fileting. It didn't seem that I was pressing down that hard. Anyone else have problems with breaking filet knives? They break right at the handle.