Butchery knife.

Hey guys,

So a couple of months ago i started a new job in a lebanese kitchen and started doing alot of butchery. We butcher all our meats in house from chicken all they way up to whole lamb. So im in the market for a new butchery knife. I currently have a cheap vitorinox one. Served me well but its time to invest. I have experience with shun blue as i kave the kiritsuke but i don't quite like theiry butchery knife. Do you guys recommend a good brand i could look into? Preferably japanese.

Thanks

Fill that. It will greatly help with recommendations.

http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/s...hich-Knife-Should-I-Buy-quot-Questionnaire-v2

honkotsu or honesuki?

Are you butchering live critters? Hafel (sp?). Or just breaking down skinned and gutted carcasses? (lamb in a bag)

+1 on questionnaire.

I would look at the two boning knives made by Mac. Also the Tojiro Gokujo.

Tangent time. I'm curious, where does slaughter end and butchering begin? A new local market that serves (presumably) the local Muslim population advertises "Hafel" with large signs outside. I've been told they do slaughter on premise but have not been in store. (I do plan on remedying that next time I'm buying lamb).

daveb said:

Tangent time. I'm curious, where does slaughter end and butchering begin? A new local market that serves (presumably) the local Muslim population advertises "Hafel" with large signs outside. I've been told they do slaughter on premise but have not been in store. (I do plan on remedying that next time I'm buying lamb).

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IMO butchering starts with a dead product. It could be the whole carcass or just a rib loin. Slaughter, IMO, requires ending of life.

I believe it's "halal" -- not "hafel".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_dietary_laws

When I butcher a chicken I use a small paring knife and for larger animals a larger forgie or something like that. A honesuki comes to mind to fill the gap. In regards to the butchering vs. slaughtering question, to me butchering does not involve "cleaning", e.i removing organs and such. Slaughtering should involve the killing of the animal and cleaning. Just my personal .02. Best of luck

ITINOMONN KUROUCHI 170MM WA BUTCHER from Maxim (JNS). :doublethumbsup:

Chifunda said:

ITINOMONN KUROUCHI 170MM WA BUTCHER from Maxim (JNS). :doublethumbsup:

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brutal knife

Forgecraft hi-carbon.
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riba said:

brutal knife

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Yep. It and my Devin gyuto are the two I'd grab if the house were on fire.

Chifunda said:

Yep. It and my Devin gyuto are the two I'd grab if the house were on fire.

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Yeah, I got one too. Guess you won't need to look for your keys when carrying the wa butcher and needing to exit the house

Gets and stays really sharp

Little off topic but interesting:detective::

Knife for slaughtering:
Hallaf
Long article on wikipedia if you have some time to kill:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shechita

And another article about a kosher slaughterer/ knife maker:
http://tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/160862/kosher-slaughter-knifemaker

robebone said:

Hey guys,

So a couple of months ago i started a new job in a lebanese kitchen and started doing alot of butchery. We butcher all our meats in house from chicken all they way up to whole lamb. So im in the market for a new butchery knife. I currently have a cheap vitorinox one. Served me well but its time to invest. I have experience with shun blue as i kave the kiritsuke but i don't quite like theiry butchery knife. Do you guys recommend a good brand i could look into? Preferably japanese.

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Hello ROBEBONE. Can I ask you what you did not like about the Shun blue butchers knife?

Thanks.

Thanks

Tojiro Gokujo or Honesuki.

+1 Tojiro Honesuki. Use mine all the the time at work. It even comes in handy as a stainless small line knife.

well the variety of things you butcher on regular basis will dictate what knifes to buy or invest into. Theory is right about tojiro honesuki.

Consider also
Foster scimitar carbon and Cleaver for some work breaking down some sub primal into portions with or without bone
butcher knife one stiff one with a little flex, that is a preference .I never used a hankotsu.I can not reference it but from my experience i haven't seen it in peoples rotation as much.Also i have experience with stainless and nothing fancy in a sense.
150mm honesuki tojiro is a good start

A good saw is always handy when dealing with whole animals.

Those are generic recommendations in a sense ,and it really depends on the level of your work you, do but i assume you do 1 or 2 pigs a week mucho chickens and beef quarters and maybe duck etc?

i don't do as much animal butchery as i used to 5 years ago . I had a mac stiff and an older victor inox and i was lucky to use a foster bros carbon cleaver that was useful a bit with some of the processing when i was doing it on a very regular basis.Most cuts where made with stiff boner and a saw when it came to pigs.The tojiro i had in my kit hacked a lot of chickens as well