Butcher Knives

[Kim Shook]

19 hours ago, MokaPot said:

I think Cutco did make butcher's knives. I did a search on eBay and there were lots for sale, including "vintage" ones, like this one:

 

 

The more I look at this picture, the more I believe that my mom did have that knife.  Thanks!  The whole family loved Cutco and was very loyal to their products.  I don't have any of the knives, but still have her complete set of wooden handled utensils - potato masher, slotted spoon, carving knife, etc.  

[TicTac]

Inherited from my grandfather -

 

 

Because every good Polish/Israeli Jew needs a honkin Chinese cleaver!!

[heidih]

I asked the 98 year old - so how did you break down the sides of beef? answer: they came off the trucks onto a conveyer belt to the saw guys who sawed them to the sections that made sense for them to use their knives, Yes bone chips did occur. They had 25 butchers plus all the ancillary guys - boxer, packers, cleaners. It was non stop like an active kitchen accompanied by the requisite yelling. 

[Kerala]

On 6/7/2021 at 3:27 PM, liuzhou said:

 I raise you this.

 

 

Hand forged bone chopping butcher's knife

Apart from this magnificent specimen, would everyone else be happy to use those fine edges on bone? My Chinese cleaver dented its edge on a chicken bone. I want something that will chop through a leg of lamb, never mind chicken thighs!

[btbyrd]

Just because something is cleaver-shaped doesn't mean it's useful for cutting through or around bones. That Dexter pictured above is one such example. Cleaver? Yes. Butcher knife? No. Same for that Lamson/Leone take on the Serbian cleaver. If you want a Chinese cleaver designed to hack through bones, get a CCK Bone Chopper (or, for somewhat less demanding but still heavy tasks, a Big Rhino, which has the same design as the knife liuzhou linked above).

[dcarch]

To bang a big nail, you need a heavy hammer with a long handle. That is the physics, weight plus speed.

 

Here is my bone chopper,

Heavy - three times the thickness compared with a regular kitchen knife.

Speed - long handle swings faster as it hits the bone. Also, long handle allows you to use two hands for extra power.

 

I have to be careful not to chop the cutting board in half! 

dcarch

 

 

[Kerala]

I didn't understand the proper use of a light Chinese cleaver when I first got it. It's a lovely sharp versatile knife, and it saddens me every time I notice the little nick on the cutting edge. All my own fault and ignorance.

I use the back of the blade of a cleaver made from railway steel to break lamb bones. The steel is too soft to keep an edge if used this way, and the whole thing looks horrific. We've just moved house, and this knife has gone "missing." Possibly Mrs K took the opportunity to dispose of it.

 

[btbyrd]

Chips in the blade can be sharpened out, especially if they're small.

[btbyrd]

My butchery knives. These are all meant to work around bone (and sometimes go through fish and poultry bones).

 

These are for slicing, portioning, and trimming.

 

[weinoo]

So, @btbyrd, do you use like 6 different knives when, say, cutting up and boning a chicken?  Butterflying a loin of pork? Etc.

 

Are you field dressing game?  Slaughtering partridge? 

 

Help me understand.

Edited June 11, 2021 by weinoo (log)

[rotuts]

I might have more than 12 knives.

 

I enjoy them , and each has is history.

 

I use 3 regularly 

 

4 others often

 

2 specifically.

 

a few rarely

 

that's how I understand it.

 

and if not used , but of hight quality

 

then they move o another home , where they are

 

appreciated the way I once did.

 

other wrong with them , they are outsanding

 

but I found something different I enjoy using 

 

these days

[Porthos]

On 6/6/2021 at 10:25 PM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

After mentioning my recently acquired butcher knife in the dinner thread, I thought to post about it.  However I could find no relevant knife thread.  I used it tonight for slicing chorizo for paella.  This blade fills a gap in my knife battery:

 

 

This is a butcher knife to me. The main section of knife has a large curve and then there is tapering towards the handle.  YMMV.

[btbyrd]

21 hours ago, weinoo said:

So, @btbyrd, do you use like 6 different knives when, say, cutting up and boning a chicken?  Butterflying a loin of pork? Etc.

 

Are you field dressing game?  Slaughtering partridge? 

 

Help me understand.

 

Not really. All the knives are more or less purpose driven, so I tend to use one or two knives per task. Use one knife to cut off a fish's head and remove its filets, another knife to remove the skin and portion it. Use one knife to remove the bones from a rib roast, another to slice it. For butchery knives, I have two Western debas (one large, one small), two poultry knives (one large, one small), one knife for boning mammals, and two western style boning knives (one stiff, one flexible) that I got way back before I got seriously into kitchen knives.

 

The top knife is a Tojiro DP 240 Western deba. It has the profile of a chef's knife, but is almost 5mm thick the whole way down. Debas are technically fish butchery knives, but a 240 deba with a double bevel is a monster knife that is game for almost any abuse. For butchery tasks, I use it whenever I need to go through poultry bones, like for bone-in fried chicken. I also use it to separate cooked ribs. But it's good for pretty much any heavy kitchen use. A true multi-tasker. Everything else more of a specialist knife. The smaller Western deba is used to take the head and filets off fish. Because it's double bevel, it's sturdy enough to deal with poultry bones, but I generally use the big one for that. I have used it to trim my Christmas tree for the past several years.

 

Under the big deba are the poultry knives, a garasuki and a honesuki. The larger garasuki is super thick and useful for breaking down turkeys and ducks (and also chickens) while the smaller honesuki is thinner and primarily suited to chickens (though it can also be used for trimming). I took a pretty deep dive on yakitori a couple years back, and these knives are the backbone of yakitori butchery. The hankostu is for boning out beef, lamb, and pork. I use it the few times a year I French a rib roast, debone a lamb leg, and to remove the bone from the occasional pork shoulder. 

 

I have 3 slicers/sujihiki. A 300mm one that's very stiff, a 270mm hollow ground one with a good amount of flex, and a lasery thin 210mm suji/petty. They're all useful for different things. The small one lives on my knife block and gets used alongside my normal chef's knives in daily rotation. It's good for trimming, butterflying, and for slicing smaller items like cooked chicken breast or whatever. The flexy suji is useful for removing the skin from fish and portioning it. It's also a good slicer for things like country ham and smoked salmon. The longest, stiffest suji is my carving knife for large roasts. It's also good for slicing raw fish for crudo or nigiri or whatever.

 

The other two knives in the portioning/slicing section are just chef's knives that also work well for butchery-adjacent tasks. The big one has a balance point way out front, and this makes it great for slicing, say, a striploin into steaks or a pork loin into chops. It's also my go-to watermelon knife. The shorter one with the drop-point has an extremely flat profile and is thicker than many of my other chef's knives, exhibiting zero flex. This makes it work very well as a slicer for both meat and fish. But the flat profile also makes it an absurdly good chopper. It's a great knife for cutting vegetables.

 

Do I need all these knives? No. Are they the best tools for their respective jobs? Pretty much. 

 

20 hours ago, rotuts said:

I might have more than 12 knives.

...

these days

 

I think this is my favorite poem of yours.

Edited June 12, 2021 by btbyrd (log)

[heidih]

Thanks for the explanation @btbyrd When I had the Wusthof block set and kept them in good condition I did enjoy being able to pull the right knife for the task. Life and priorities change. I know it is here somewhere but my dad will overly aggressively sharpen when my back is turned. (helloo where is the blade?)  My ex was a major knife guy (collect and sell - not kitchen - combat) so I think I intentionally/subconsciously misplaced the high end Japanese kitchen ones he gave me over time. Emotions trample thought processes at times. Blade Show 20211 just finished last week in Atlanta https://bladeshow.com/ If you are in the area in 2022 ight be fun.