We covered the new James Brand Folsom Pro last week: a larger, renovated version of one of their most popular knives. But if you weren’t feel-leting that release, maybe you’ll prefer the Humboldt, a new fillet knife fixed blade from the company.
The fillet knife genre is an interesting one because, unlike most other knife archetypes, it is truly meant to do only a single thing, and that is fillet fish. Because of this, there typically isn’t even a large amount of design variation between one fillet knife and another; makers really have to emphasize the details to make their particular fillet knife feel unique, and James Brand has always been good at details.
The Humboldt’s flexile, 7-inch blade is the standard trailing point pattern, narrow and curvilinear. This will not be an everyday carry or hard use outdoors knife for anybody, of course, but even given its narrower job description, James did not stint when it came to blade steel. They’re rolling the Humboldt out in Bohler N690. This steel has been a standby in the mid-range EDC folder category for more than a decade at this point: never the most popular, but always a pleasant surprise. In a culinary application, N690’s high corrosion resistance and responsiveness to sharpening will serve users well.
Machined G-10 handle scales, with some fine line texturing on the flats and a steep chamfer all around their perimeter, give good traction – always an important secondary knife characteristic, but especially needful during the messy work of fish prepping. The forward handle screw sports a show side with the James Brand logo on it, adding a bit of flair to the clean aesthetic. The Humboldt comes with a Kydex sheath and weighs 4.5 oz.
It is available now.
Knife in Featured Image: James Brand Humboldt
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