Nine inches with a pronounced flex is a skinning and long-fillet configuration. The blade bends to stay flat against the skin as you pull, which is what stops the knife from cutting up into the flesh and leaving meat behind on the hide.
Salmon, larger snapper, lake trout and anything long-bodied are where it earns the length — the fillet comes off in one pass rather than three overlapping ones. It is also the knife for taking skin off a fillet already removed from the frame.
Dexter-Russell has been manufacturing cutlery in Southbridge, Massachusetts since 1818 and remains the oldest American cutlery maker in operation.
