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.