A good knife for meat cutting?

A

alhersch

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Oct 28, 2005
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Our family butchers our own beef and pork every year and deer if were lucky... We always seem to fight for the best knives in our family. Since i'm getting more into knives, I would like to find a couple of knives to buy that have high quality steel and will take a good edge and stay that way. I have 3 knives in particular in question: I have purchased several used Forschner knives model #40515(6" boning knife), a J.A. Henckels 5.5 Fine Edge Pro boning knife, and thinking about an Old Hickory 6" boning knife. Are these quality steels and what edge would be best for this type of use? The Forschner knives all need major work as far as an edge goes... Any good ideas on what angles to use?
 
You could check the Dexter-Russell website, they have a huge collection of butcher knives. My favorite is a stainless steel 5" from Dexter Russell. A 5" I find better for most home use ,deer etc a larger one is better for beef.
 
When I worked as a butcher we all used Forschner knives and they worked very well. They came with a good working edge but we also sharpened our knives about twice a week on a tripple sided oiled stone and steeled frequently. The factory edge did not stay on there very long, but when somebody got a new knife they never needed to sharpen it right away.

I should also probably say that my butchering experience was not typical of what is done today. We worked with primal cuts and quartered animals, not individually wrapped boneless pieces that for the most part just need to be sliced up for display.

Sorry you had bad experiences with Forschner, they would be my first recommendation. I still have a few that work very well for me when cutting meat. Their chef's knives are pretty good, too.

Nothing wrong with Dexters either, I just prefer the Fibrox handles of the Forschners.
 
Victorinox makes a nice "professional" knives and I also have several Spyderco chef and paring knives that are very good.
 
Thanks for the replies so far,

CMD; I didn't mean to give the impression that I had a bad experience with Forschner, I bought used knives that need a new edge put on baddd... I did buy a brand new knife as well, and haven't played much with it much yet, but it does feel very sharp!

We have a 3 sided oiled stone and steels as well. The 3 sided get used once a year before we start and then its usually the steel or ceramic stick to keep sharp. I was looking for someone with experience with this type of work or knife usage to point in the right direction. I have found several Dexter Russells as well that look nice. I don't specifically care if they are nice, more of a edge retention type of question compared to other steels.

Thanks,

Alan
 
I used to cut meat for my uncle several years back and we always used Dexter Russell or Forschner knives. 90% of our work was done with 5" - 6" boning knives. You'll likely find one of those two brands in the majority of most commercial establishments. (butchers, restaurants, fishing docks, etc) It's been my experience that neither of these knives hold an edge particulary well but they are easy as hell to sharpen and you can bring them back to a razor's edge with just a few licks on a steel.

I'm not sure what kind of money you're wanting to spend but Knives Of Alaska makes a really nice boning knife out of ATS-34 steel that I've thought about buying for myself. They're a lot more expensive than Forschners or Russells ($75-$145 as opposed to about $15) but unless you go to a custom maker I'm not sure where you can find another boning knife with top quality steel.
http://www.aaknives.com/jabokn.html

koa_Jaeger.jpg
 
Well I suppose that pretty much narrow's it down then, I did good by buying Forschner. Might try to buy a Dexter or two as well just to see which one I like best. I agree on the 5-6" range. Thats mostly what we use, the longer are okay for working with the ribs but thats about it...

Thanks for all the replies folks, as always a good group on here!!!

Alan
 
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