Butchering knives advice
- Thread starter Potasz
- Start date
Here is a tip, check out your local thrift stores. I always keep my eye out for good quality full tang blades. Collectively I have found many quality German, Japanese knives probably worth well north of a grand typically for $3 to 5 a piece. Excellent quality vintage steels for $1. Sadly most of the new steels are pricey Chinese products and don't last very long.
A few from the thrift store collection, no $500 pieces but I have quite a few that retail in the $200-250 range everything from Wustof's to Mac and few assorted quality vintage American pieces like Cutco. It amazing what can pick up for a few shekels.
A few from the thrift store collection, no $500 pieces but I have quite a few that retail in the $200-250 range everything from Wustof's to Mac and few assorted quality vintage American pieces like Cutco. It amazing what can pick up for a few shekels.
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I have 3 brands of knives that I use only for butchering: Victorinox, the Henckels yellow-handled and Dexter. I find all 3 to be excellent knives, comparable to each other. For my hands and habits, I give the Henckels the edge, but you wouldn't go wrong with either of those choices. I've often been tempted to try one of the super-high end knives (in the 4-500 per knife range), but I only use them a few times a year, and the ones I have do a great job, hold an edge and are easy to keep sharp, so I can't justify it. For a steel, I use a Kuradori, and every year or so, I give them a going-over on the 1" belt sander, finishing with a leather belt on the sander.
Years back; my step brother who has never been anything but a professional meat cutter volunteered to help us process a truckload of deer. Watching him was mesmerizing; he could strip bones so clean that a dog wouldn't look at them, run a seminar on what individual muscles were named and drink beer at the same. Some of the time he'd be using the dull side of the blade, and there was never a wasted motion. Naturally we all ran out to buy the same magical knives he was using; which were a 6" flexible boning knife and a 12" steak knife which is also called a scimitar and sometimes just a cimitar. Both were Victorinox. It was later that I found out that he'd just grabbed a couple of "box knives" when leaving work. Individual knives that nobody liked got box duty, opening and slashing boxes for the purpose of throwing them away. Turns out he could have used a clam shell from the beach or an ulu and it wouldn't have made much difference. It wasn't a loss though, I made the investment back 100 times cutting Costco beef loins into steaks and scaring people with the 12". Just pulling that out of the block is like drawing a sword.
For the non-professional you need two knives. The technical terms are " the big knife" and "the little knife". The little knife will be a boner. Most are swept back which I suspect is for a relaxed wrist position for assembly-line cutters. I've come to prefer a straighter blade like the Henckel 6" heavy boning knife. Either way, good ones don't cost that much so you can afford to be wrong. Twenty some bucks will take care of that so you may as well buy them both. We made cases and use the Heavy boning knife as a hunting knife. In a pinch you could use it for a "everything else knife" too.
For the "big knife" you could go with a 12" swept point steak knife but the same thing in 10 or even 8" might suit you better. The 12" has advantages for cutting round steaks out of hanging beef carcasses if that's something you're likely to spend all day doing. A classic more rounded end butcher knife might suit you better. I found the yellow handled Henckels that Cabelas sells are easy to sharpen and seem to hold an edge better than the Victorinox, but you won't go far wrong either way. The next guy, according to his luck will pick them the other way around. Low to mid 30s will buy that.
You could do worse than getting the 5 knife and steel set at Cabelas for $130 but you really only need two for $60. Put the rest of your 500 toward a kickass grinder.
For the non-professional you need two knives. The technical terms are " the big knife" and "the little knife". The little knife will be a boner. Most are swept back which I suspect is for a relaxed wrist position for assembly-line cutters. I've come to prefer a straighter blade like the Henckel 6" heavy boning knife. Either way, good ones don't cost that much so you can afford to be wrong. Twenty some bucks will take care of that so you may as well buy them both. We made cases and use the Heavy boning knife as a hunting knife. In a pinch you could use it for a "everything else knife" too.
For the "big knife" you could go with a 12" swept point steak knife but the same thing in 10 or even 8" might suit you better. The 12" has advantages for cutting round steaks out of hanging beef carcasses if that's something you're likely to spend all day doing. A classic more rounded end butcher knife might suit you better. I found the yellow handled Henckels that Cabelas sells are easy to sharpen and seem to hold an edge better than the Victorinox, but you won't go far wrong either way. The next guy, according to his luck will pick them the other way around. Low to mid 30s will buy that.
You could do worse than getting the 5 knife and steel set at Cabelas for $130 but you really only need two for $60. Put the rest of your 500 toward a kickass grinder.
There's two basic types of people; cutters and wrappers. (With chainsaws it's cutters and carriers 
) If there's only two good knives around and they are both your's then you're probably going to be the cutter. Nobody wants to be a wrapper, its worse than being a carrier.
) If there's only two good knives around and they are both your's then you're probably going to be the cutter. Nobody wants to be a wrapper, its worse than being a carrier.
You forgot one - the inspector, who makes sure there are no hairs in or on the final product. When prep is done right, it's a boring job, but we always find 2 or 3 hairs we need to remove just before packaging.
And as others have said - you only "need" 2 knives. Use the leftover money for a good vacuum sealing machine. That is an incredible tool. No more freezer burn, and you can easily quick-thaw the meat by dumping the bag in a bowl of cold water. A lot of experts will tell you you are better off cooking steaks from frozen, but when vacuum sealed and thawed in cold water, I find very little difference between fresh and frozen. ANd as another poster has said, you can save a crapload of money buying whole sirloins and pork loins, then cutting them up and packaging.
And as others have said - you only "need" 2 knives. Use the leftover money for a good vacuum sealing machine. That is an incredible tool. No more freezer burn, and you can easily quick-thaw the meat by dumping the bag in a bowl of cold water. A lot of experts will tell you you are better off cooking steaks from frozen, but when vacuum sealed and thawed in cold water, I find very little difference between fresh and frozen. ANd as another poster has said, you can save a crapload of money buying whole sirloins and pork loins, then cutting them up and packaging.
Anybody else using Giesser knives?
I had a Foodsaver, which worked great, but switched to a Cabela's 15" "pro" model because my wife is a cheesemaker and we need the larger size for some of her wheels. It is also excellent. However, I have not had great success with the bags other than the Foodsaver and Cabela's brands.
cdn1canhunt
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I bought one of these knives to try out. figured I can't beat it for he price
https://www.amazon.ca/Mercer-Culina...=gateway&sprefix=Boning+,aps,227&sr=8-20&th=1
https://www.amazon.ca/Mercer-Culina...=gateway&sprefix=Boning+,aps,227&sr=8-20&th=1
