Best knives for butchering ?

Hi , we've recently become able to finally invest in some better knives for hunting, butchering, processing our venison and other animals. We plan in the future to raise either goats or beef, and pigs to butcher ourselves. My husband also occasionally gets a rabbit in the winter. What are the best quality - say, if price were not much of an issue - knives that experienced home butchers or professionals recommend ? I do plan on finding and asking some local butchers, I just want info from homesteaders as well. My best friend's husband used to work at one, and we did a deer with them one year, and he was just racing through and wasting wayyy more than my husband and I were used to, compared to his parents, who were depression kids and they wasted like nothing. Every little scrap was saved for burger.   ( the friend is a busy dairy farmer, and they're not used to being in need of the meat terribly, themselves, we guess is a reason... ). I don't know if that makes any difference on what knives get recommended, but, just in case, there you go. My husband isn't too happy with what he has for the gutting and etc. part of things, either. Gut knife I think .. . Thanks !

I have a set of Wustof Tridents in my kitchen.  But my favorite knives for butchering are some I picked up in a junk store.  A couple look similar to Old Hickory.  One has a curved blade and another has a straight blade. I also have a filet knife. I have a heavy  meat cleaver. And I use a hack saw.  My total investment was less than $20. The main thing for knives is to keep them sharp.

My absolute favorite knife is a cheap fish filet knife I bought at Walmart. I use it every single time I butcher anything. I recently got some Jero knives and they've been cutting things really well.

I just can't spend a lot of money on knives right now so these are what I've got with what I've got. lol

You can probably do 95% of everything you'd ever need to do for butchering with 2 knives.  The remaining 5% would require a bone saw or cleaver.  Other knives might be preferable for some tasks, but you could butcher almost anything (except cuts requiring cutting through bone larger than a chicken spine) from a rabbit to a chicken to a lamb to a cow with just these 2 knives.  I linked to VIctorinox brand knives, but Dexter and other brands with similar knives will work just as well.

If you don't know how to properly sharpen knives, you need to learn.  That is FAR more important than the type of knife.  A dull knife makes for a lot of extra work.

https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-5-6603-15-Fibrox-Semi-Stiff-B0000CF94L/dp/B0000CF94L/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2NQ929OR1V4H8&dchild=1&keywords=victorinox+semi+flex&qid=1600354551&s=home-garden&sprefix=vict%2Cgarden%2C344&sr=1-1

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000CF8ZV/ref=twister_B078KDXXMV?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I also vote for a filleting knife and for everything else I use my favourite kitchen knife. I do have a cleaver but it's very rarely used I don't like bits of bone in my meat so I prefer to use a saw. I use a normal cheapo wood saw, I'm sure a bone saw would be nicer but I don't deal with large animals enough to justify it.

When butchering chickens last year, I found I usually was more comfortable with a Wustof paring knife than any of the specialty knives I tried. The short blade was easier to control, and it kept a wicked sharp edge the whole season.

The other knife I used was a serrated titanium steak knife I found in a thrift store years ago. It did a fine job cutting through tendons in order to separate the joints. The paring knife tended to dig into the bone instead, it may have been too sharp for that particular part of the job. Next time I'll try using pruning shears to cut through the bone itself, but I haven't found a pair I'm comfortable with using for that.

For sawing through big bones, wood-cutting tools will work. Just make sure they can be cleaned well enough, and use a food-safe oil if oiling it is necessary.

Hi Ellendra

The pruning shears make sense.  I think I will add them.  I am thinking in terms of cutting through tendons of larger animal as well.  In some places they may be safer than a knife.

For chickens a honesuki is, IME, bar none the best knife geometry.  That said, the Victorinox boning knife I linked to above does almost as well, and I wouldn't mind processing lots of chicken with that knife.

I've never felt the need for pruning shears with chickens.  

If your knife is digging into the bone rather than finding the tendons, you are missing the spot.  The duller knife might then slip to the right spot, but if you get it right the first time that wicked sharp knife will separate that joint much faster and easier.  Keep practicing and you'll get to the point you hit it right almost every time pretty quickly.

In general there's not a lot of bones on a chicken you would typically want to cut through that a stout knife like the breaking knife I linked to above can't handle with ease.  The only bones I regularly cut through are the ribs when separating the back from the breasts, and the keel bone when separating the breasts.  The ribs can be cut with almost any knife easily.  There's just not much there, especially if you aim in-between the upper and lower ribs.  It's really more cartilage than bone there.  The keel bone requires a larger knife just to get the leverage to cut through it safely.  But those bones are still fairly soft.

I would use old, beat-up pruners to cut bones on larger animals; I'd be afraid it would chip the thin edge of the shears. I would avoid any knives that are stainless steel, but that's personal preference. I like D2 tool steel. If it's good enough to cut steel, it should be good enough to cut meat. You really don't need more than a consignment store Old Hickory in a few shapes and sizes, or the fillet knives can be handy like others suggested. All of these can be found quite cheaply and are really good quality, even compared to some more expensive. You can also modify cheap, used knives to your liking without feeling nervous or guilty. If you don't need a clean cut on a bone, I don't usually cut them. I process an entire deer without cutting a bone. First, I tailor the way I cut it up to not need to cut them, and second, fresh bones are strong, but very brittle. I normally cut the leg bones off, because it's faster and less likely to dull the knife point than cutting the joint (and avoids the glands on the rear legs). I just cut down to the bone, flip the knife around and give a sharp whack with the spine of the knife to the bone, and it shatters in one whack. The knife I usually use only has a 4" blade, but it is thick. It takes a certain amount of mass to work, but you could just as easily use a scrap bar of steel or something. I've done an entire deer from field to freezer with a pocket knife due to my forgetfulness before. People used to use rocks, so anything we have is a luxury!

Thanks, everyone, for your replies so far ! Yes, my husband knows about the importance of them being sharp, and sharpening properly. We need to find a steel ( not sure on spelling) like his dad had, both his parents are passed on now. He says the steel I picked up at a thrift sale is not the same. I do know that most any sharp knife can do the job, been doing that ! After he got them quarted, I did the rest myself , this past year, as he had to be at work ( long hours) and I definitely need to learn to sharpen myself.
Will be checking out the old hickory mentioned !

I used to recommend Jeff White knives in bushcraft circles, but then he died. They were cheap and yet well made, plus a lot thinner than modern knives. You can still find them some places omline, and I think one of his students is now selling knives.

Something you might look at is Nessmuk styled knives. They have a point that is hard to dig into an animal.

Dexter and Victorinox knives are good quality and reasonably priced.

I don't hunt but am often gifted wild rabbits and goats that I skin and butcher myself.

To date, I have happily used my kitchen knives, secateurs and pruning saw.

However, my brother has very generously given me a set of NZ made Victory knives in a swanky leather roll that I have yet to try out.

Megan Palmer wrote:I don't hunt but am often gifted wild rabbits and goats that I skin and butcher myself.

To date, I have happily used my kitchen knives, secateurs and pruning saw.

However, my brother has very generously given me a set of NZ made Victory knives in a swanky leather roll that I have yet to try out.

Looks like you're switching from one batch of German steel to another! The Victory knives look mighty posh. Though your original knives are no slouch either -- L-R Zwilling Henckels, Schinken-Messer, and Wusthof.

Gray Henon wrote:Dexter and Victorinox knives are good quality and reasonably priced.

I use dexter in the kitchen and for butchering.

When I butcher meat rabbits or deer, I use a 7" butcher knife to bleed the rabbit and I have 3 paring knives 3" long and 3 boning knives 5" long.

When I butcher chickens, I use a 7" cleaver at the chopping block and then the 3 paring and 3 boning same as above.

I use the work sharp system to keep things sharp. I guess I prefer multiples of reasonable priced knives.

I have mixed feeling about the hand held pruners. When I use them, I get more punctures in the vac seal bags. I should probably add another 5" boning knife to work the leg joints and dedicate that knife to that.

Josh Hoffman wrote: I have mixed feeling about the hand held pruners. When I use them, I get more punctures in the vac seal bags.

When we first started processing chickens, Hubby used a cleaver to chop the lower leg off, and that left sharp bits that absolutely tended to put holes in plastic bags.

I started doing that part by flexing the joint and slicing the skin with a knife then twisting it to dislocate it through the joint. This was not much more time, and a much better product.

My friend who hunts deer told me that a bunch of hunters have switched to Olfa knives and just break off a section of blade when it gets dull. I haven't tried that yet. However, if he needs to go through bone, he uses a saw.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Though your original knives are no slouch either -- L-R Zwilling Henckels, Schinken-Messer, and Wusthof.

Thank you Douglas, I am married to a man who enjoys cooking and our knives have been purchased over the years - our carving set is over 40 years old.

We both appreciate quality, sharp knives 😉

Jay, I too debone chickens, rabbits etc at the joints, much easier than trying to chop/saw through bones.

I have found a mixture of Old Hickory and Dexter Russel knives have been great for butchery.

Old Hickory Knives

Dexter Russel Knives

They are relatively cheap, come in a wide variety of styles, and are easy to sharpen.

Another thing to mention would be knife size preference. I have a 7" cleaver for the chopping block and a 7" butcher knife for bleeding rabbits.

Otherwise, I don't use or want anything over 5". If feels awkward, to me, to use anything larger to field dress or take apart an animal. I find myself using a sharp paring knife most often, even breaking down deer.

I imagine everyone has their preference or are still working it out.

For skinning, nothing beats the Alaska Native ulu (or ooloo). It is a half-moon shaped knife where the entire convex-curved outer edge is the cutting edge and the handle is fitted to the small side. They are typically made from an old circular-saw blade cut into truncated pie wedges, or a piece of mild steel cut into shape, and sharpened. The handle is a piece of wood or comfortably sized branch, with a deep groove along its length so you can insert the small side of the blade. Native women traditionally skinned huge animals like bear and walrus with them, very very quickly and expertly. There's no handle protruding past the blade, so you can work it into place and push from behind it, not from one side.

Besides that, a chef's knife, either western or Asian, for chopping,  a filet knife for along bones and for small critters, and a cleaver.

Used carbon steel knives can be a great find, especially the Old Hickory brand or high-end Sabatier knives that were sold widely in the 1970s. Also old butcher's cleavers. Avoid super shiny stainless. Also anything serrated--a bacteria spreader and finger-wounder besides not cutting meat well.. Wustof makes a nice paring knife for very small jobs, and a decent chef knife.

We cut up dozens of deer and thousands of fish with the above lineup and they're still performing beautifully after 50 years.

Ditto for me on the ulu knife.  Brought this one back from our fishing trip near Yakutat, Alaska

elle sagenev wrote:My absolute favorite knife is a cheap fish filet knife I bought at Walmart. I use it every single time I butcher anything. I recently got some Jero knives and they've been cutting things really well.

I also purchased a cheap knife but don't remember where, just that I couldn't afford a hefty price. It is a 'Railton39R2351 Stainless, Japan. I've had this at least 30 years now and have never sharpened it or had it sharpened. Living alone it doesn't get a lot of use cutting meat, but when that job comes around it still does a great job cutting up the larger chunk into stew meats. I do have other knives but I've used this one for so long that it still usually is the first one I pickup to do many other jobs cutting up cloth, rope, cardboard boxes, opening packages and mail. I bent the tip about 1/2" back and just took it to the shop and hammered it back straight. I don't know what I'd do with out it!!
Long live my knife!!

There was a comment about needing to keep your knives sharp.  
I build a DIY sharpener similar to:Sharpener

I changed a couple things - first I made the long square block from hardwood, then notched out a place to embed a piece of old plate glass on each face.
A couple simple flat metal tabs hold the sandpaper in place instead of gluing on.
It's easy to change grits - depends on how rough the edge is to start.
Right now I run 200, 400, 800, 1200.
It also works on chisel and plane blades if you set up the clamp properly.

One critical piece I learned long ago was that a glass surface is so flat that any (decent) steel can be honed to a really fine edge.

IF your surface is flat and your angle is consistant. The modified jig does both.

Sorry, no pic of mine - it's been loaned out and haven't seen it for months

I butchered my first pig in a long time.  Anyway, I surprised myself. My Buck 110 got the most use.