Kosher Knives

Joined
Nov 11, 2025
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I am prepping some vegetables for Thanksgiving and was rooting around the internet as the vegetables caramelize to make butternut squash soup. I found reference to kosher knives. Can someone who actually knows fill me in on what makes a knife kosher or not kosher? I'm interested in knowing just to know but have no experience in this matter.
 
Huh, I'd never thought about this before. I am not Jewish, so I am sure there is much more information to learn on this, but apparently kosher slaughter requires purpose-built knives and specific techniques:


Here's some example knives:


Other sources focus around maintaining kosher practices in the kitchen when cooking and recommend getting knives with color-coded handles so that one does not inadvertently use the same knife on dairy/fish that one uses on meat or vegetables.



*Note to Mods: The links above direct to non-BF supporting vendors. I thought it appropriate here as they provide on-topic information for which I could not find other sources (I probably could, but I didn't want to burn too much time on that). I can remove the links, if required.
 
Yeah there is making a knife (any knife of any kitchen utensils) kosher. So let's say you buy a second hand knife and you want to make it kosher for use, you use a specific procedure.
Bear in mind that Jewish Dietary Law requires meat and milk to be completely separate in the kitchen and you may not use the same utensils, crockery and cutlery for both. (there can be certain exceptions) SO you would have to decide if you want the knife to cut cheese cake or liver! 😁

Then there are the specialist knives used for ritual Kosher killing. Those are only used by a professional who specialises in ritual Kosher killing. He is often a Rabbi but not always.
The knives tend to be large, completely straight edged, thin stock and cannot have any nicks, marks or blemishes on the blade particularly the edge. Killing must be done in a single stroke. I've seen it done. It's unpleasant but definitely not cruel.
 
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