Knives for primals.

Okay guys, what do you use?

Six days a week I start my shift by breaking down a ribeye primal or two. It's cathartic in a weird Dexter way, and I get a kick out of challenging myself to go faster and improve my yield; the problem is, I'm positive I'm using the wrong tool for the job.

Most of the time, I just use the same 270mm gyuto I use for 99% of my prep: it's pointy enough to navigate around the fat and silverskin, and I can cut steaks straight out without changing tools. It doesn't exactly excel in either capacity though. As an alternative, I'll sometimes use a 6" flexible filet knife to clean and trim, then switch to the gyuto for portioning.

Anyone else spend hours of their lives wrist deep in cow guts, and have a more efficient suggestion?

How about a bullnose or a scimitar?

For knocking off the big bits, and bringing things down to size, it's hard to beat a classic scimitar IMO. For fine tuning, I like a 150-170 mm petty, short at the heel, and stupidly aggressive at the tip.

chinacats said:

How about a bullnose or a scimitar?

Click to expand...

Beat me to it. Although I think bullnoses are more suited to portioning. A scimitar with a pointier tip, can be excellent for getting under some trickier spots.

brainsausage said:

For fine tuning, I like a 150-170 mm petty, short at the heel, and stupidly aggressive at the tip.

Click to expand...

That was my thinking kinda, a really narrow petty in the 150-210 range. Most everyone else who does this in the restaurant sticks with the filet knife though - is flexibility particularly important?

How about a bullnose or a scimitar?

Click to expand...

The owner keeps a 12" pre-war carbon scimitar in his office. Maybe he'll let me clean it up and press it back into service.

brainsausage said:

For knocking off the big bits, and bringing things down to size, it's hard to beat a classic scimitar IMO. For fine tuning, I like a 150-170 mm petty, short at the heel, and stupidly aggressive at the tip.

Click to expand...

What type of petty are you using?

BTW, the scimitar and bullnose I got from you have nice wood set aside and just waiting on time for a re-handle.

I'm a big fan of this guy. Works like a scimitar but more nimble. Typically this style has a lot of flex, but luckily this sourdough one doesn't.

marc4pt0 said:

Click to expand...

Having spent many hours breaking down rib eyes I know exactly how you feel. I actually posted a few similar threads here asking for advice.
First thing I would say is Guyto is defiantly not ideal, can certainly get the job done but If your going for efficiency and yield than you need something with a better tip.
I went threw many different knife line ups before finding what works for me. I almost always preferred two knives. And if your doing lots of primal its not silly to just have two knives out while working. My first knife was always a small nimble one with a pointy tip for knocking off the triangle of fat and slipping around that silver skin. I used to use a hankotsu for that then a 180 petty and finally a blood root boning knife. They all did the job well. Then I would switch to a big knife for portioning. Started with a 300 suiji then tried the cck butchers knife then a Victronix 10" breaking then a 12" bullnose breaker. And to be honest each knife left a little to be desired. As far as profile the breaking knife was best at falling right threw the rib but I was constantly frustrated with its edge retention and found it hard to sharpen. So I would inevitably swap out for a sharper suiji. For me the ideal candidate seemed to be a custom made knife with good steal and scimitar profile but I never found one and they tend to be pricy.

marc4pt0 said:

I'm a big fan of this guy. Works like a scimitar but more nimble. Typically this style has a lot of flex, but luckily this sourdough one doesn't.

Click to expand...

Sexy knife, that's exactly what I was talking about I just never got around to finding one. How long is the blade?

I use a Harner boner. It is kind of a hybrid boning/breaking knife. That way I don't have to switch knives. All of my meat cutters would use a 5 or 6 inch boning knife and a 10 inch breaking knife for beef rib racks.

Forgecraft made a breaking knife. That could be worth a look around ebay. I don't really do ebay but I think it is mostly just the chef knives with the high prices.

Tojiro Gokujo would be a good here as well.

I really like that Harner.

+1 on the Harner boner. Want. He makes a Bullnose that's not bad either.

Holy crap guys, thanks. No way around it, I guess I'm hitting up eBay for some ODC.

Aww shucks.

I have this stiff fillet/boning knife from a well known local bladesmith, called David Brodziak. I use this for for all primal work and such a joy to use. It's a PM steel but cannot remember at the top of my head now.