Which knife is best for cutting meat?

Cutting meat does not dull a knife. Use a wooden (end grain is best) or poly cutting board, use any decent knife and get a Chef's Choice sharpener. Use the sharpener according to directions when needed.
 
I like f. Dick with smooth f.dick steel to touch up the edge. As far as dulling, depends on what surface you are cutting on. Meat by itself won’t dull a knife very fast.
 
Lee D said:
I use this OKC in the kitchen for meat and vegetables. (2nd pic included because veggies is a daily thing to feed the African tortoise I keep for my granddaughter lol)



Click to expand...
Turtle salad every day?

In my kitchen I have a mix of mostly relatively inexpensive but OK knives acquired over the years. Henckels Zwilling, Wusthof, a couple Victorinox/Forshner and the like. Couple of Old Hickory, recently some Friedrich Dick and Frost's (Mora) knives. I have several decent knives from Japan that I've had for nearly 30 years, back when they were $20 or so. One is a 3-layer with VG10 or something in it. I got a couple Pilot brand knives which are thin and slicey. I bought 3 MAC Japanes knives one time at a Salvation Army store for about $3 each. They are about $50 each now and my wife doesn't know where they got to. (!!!).

So if you research and shop around a bit, you should be able to find something of reasonable quality without breaking the bank. Sharpening is another matter.
 
I like F.Dick knives for meat cutting. They take a nice edge. I have the one with bright blue handle.
 
Boattale said:
Cutting meat does not dull a knife. Use a wooden (end grain is best) or poly cutting board, use any decent knife and get a Chef's Choice sharpener. Use the sharpener according to directions when needed.
Click to expand...

D DaisyHogan 👆This. Get a good cutting board made of wood. Not bamboo/plastic/glass/micarta...

A set of crock sticks like a Spyderco Sharpmaker or Lansky like this. They're really easy to use to touch up the edge before use.


LK-LCSGM2.jpg



Henkles have been mentioned and that's what I use along with some others. Henkles tend to be softer than Japanese knives but sharpen easier because of that.
 
DaisyHogan said:
Good morning,
I am a person who loves to cook, loves to cook, and explores to make new dishes, so kitchen tools are indispensable for me, especially knives. However, I encountered a problem that when I used a knife to cut meat, a short time later the knife became dull and could not cut anymore. So I would like everyone to be able to tell me what is the best knife to use to cut meat?
Thank you very much.
Click to expand...
It really depends on how much meat? I typically use either my 10" or 12" chef's knives -- I have a 10" Henckels and a 12" Global. They work well -- use whatever length you're comfortable with, from 6" to 12".

If I am cutting a great deal of meat -- true butchering, I use a 14" Old Hickory Butcher Knife in high carbon steel. They currently run $17.95. I also recommend Victorinox Fibrox knives. You don't need anything fancy.

Make sure you're using a suitable cutting surface -- wood or polypropylene cutting board, and don't abuse use knives on bones. Use a saw or cleaver.

Also, keep your knife well honed using a steel. Honing straightens, not grinds the edge of your knife...

CsGiuZI.jpeg



Old Hickory Butcher Knife 14" High Carbon Steel Blade 5-3/8" Handle
Probably the greatest bang-for-the-buck of any US-made knife on Earth at $17.95 on sale
No need to get fancy to cut meat well​
 
Last edited:
Dr Heelhook said:
There are really only two knives that you actually need in the kitchen, a chef's knife and a bread knife.

Get yourself a high quality chef's knife and a good cutting board if you don't have them already + good equipment for sharpening, then learn how to sharpen properly. You shouldn't have any problems after that.
Click to expand...
No.
Depending on the work you're doing, a (small) paring knife is also indispensable. Certainly more so than a bread knife.
 
Like others have said perhaps use a different cutting board and hand wash your knives. I have had great luck with Shun knives in the kitchen but F. Dick knives cost 1/3 and do just as well. The ergo grip F. Dick knives are reasonable cost and super comfortable.
 
1. Cutting meat will absolutely dull a knife.
2. A boning knife or butcher knife is the right tool for cutting meat.

Source: have butchered a bunch of deer.
 
Get a wooden chopping board, and buy some half decent chef knives, then learn to sharpen those knives. Even if you buy a high HRC chef knife in ZDP-189 you will eventually have to sharpen it, so learning how to sharpen your knives seems like the best solution for you.
 
Daisy Hogan,

Seems like you have gotten pretty good advice. Do you still have questions? If so, please let us know the details. What meat are you cutting? How much? What type knives do you have? What are you sharpening them with?
 
BWYO said:
Daisy Hogan,

Seems like you have gotten pretty good advice. Do you still have questions? If so, please let us know the details. What meat are you cutting? How much? What type knives do you have? What are you sharpening them with?
Click to expand...
1624820516194.jpeg
 
“...we used every goldang part of a mammoth.”

That’s a fact. How do you think I inherited those three mammoth-hoof wastebaskets from my father’s side of the family?

We are a family of slow runners, and so found it most feasible to pursue the three-legged variety.

Parker
 
Seriously folks, my kitchen knife racks hold over a dozen knives each. I have two, one for stainless and one for carbon steel. But more importantly, beside each one hangs a smooth steel.

As a younger man, I hung out with some professional meat cutters. They were all sticklers for sharpness - cutting meat all day every day, they could tell detect the slightest amount of dulling by feel. They would take up their steel, give the knife 3 or 4 strokes, and resume cutting without missing a beat. Every morning they would come in 1/2 an hour early and hand sharpen their knives on a waterbath Tri-hone. They chuckled at my feeble sharpening efforts, which I had previously thought highly adequate if not pretty good. Anyway, I learned from them the usefulness of the smooth burnishing steel.

Many times, a knife that seems dull is merely misaligned at the microscopic edge, and the smooth steel (within limits) corrects this condition quickly and easily. I kinda favor between-the-wars F. Dicks (and have adopted a trailing stroke technique to compensate for the nicks and pitting they sometimes have) but there are other good ones out there.

As mentioned prior, steeling works best on carbon or simple stainless knives of moderate hardness. Those are the knives I have, and find them adequate for my meat cutting (and other) uses.

Parker
 
catspa said:
Seriously folks, my kitchen knife racks hold over a dozen knives each. I have two, one for stainless and one for carbon steel. But more importantly, beside each one hangs a smooth steel.
Click to expand...
So?
catspa said:
As a younger man, I hung out with some professional meat cutters. They were all sticklers for sharpness - cutting meat all day every day, they could tell detect the slightest amount of dulling by feel. They would take up their steel, give the knife 3 or 4 strokes, and resume cutting without missing a beat. Every morning they would come in 1/2 an hour early and hand sharpen their knives on a waterbath Tri-hone. They chuckled at my feeble sharpening efforts, which I had previously thought highly adequate if not pretty good. Anyway, I learned from them the usefulness of the smooth burnishing steel.
Click to expand...
At the beginning of my 8th grade summer I became an apprentice meat-cutter in a union shop (a Safeway market.) Best part time job I ever had. The notion of coming in every morning early and SHARPENING knives as you suggest is laughable is a butcher shop environment. We didn't SHARPEN knives at anywhere near that frequency, though we HONED them throughout the workday as needed. Make no mistake, our knives were SHARP!

Though we had to demonstrate we could care for our own gear as apprentices, after awhile, when one of my knives actually needed sharpening, I just had "Joey" do them -- just as he did for valued customers at no charge as a service.

catspa said:
Many times, a knife that seems dull is merely misaligned at the microscopic edge, and the smooth steel (within limits) corrects this condition quickly and easily. I kinda favor between-the-wars F. Dicks (and have adopted a trailing stroke technique to compensate for the nicks and pitting they sometimes have) but there are other good ones out there.

As mentioned prior, steeling works best on carbon or simple stainless knives of moderate hardness. Those are the knives I have, and find them adequate for my meat cutting (and other) uses.

Parker
Click to expand...

OK.
 
So as a professional butcher, did you use a smooth steel?

The shop I speak of was not in a Safeway, it was a custom cutting shop in a small town surrounded by 50 miles of cattle ranches in every direction. No, wait - there were a couple sheep farms down by the river. They had two full time slaughtering crews, and processed about 20-30 animals per week (more during hunting season).

Anyway, that’s what they did, and probably didn’t even know you union guys were laughing at them.

Parker
 
catspa said:
So as a professional butcher, did you use a smooth steel?

The shop I speak of was not in a Safeway, it was a custom cutting shop in a small town surrounded by 50 miles of cattle ranches in every direction. No, wait - there were a couple sheep farms down by the river. They had two full time slaughtering crews, and processed about 20-30 animals per week (more during hunting season).

Anyway, that’s what they did, and probably didn’t even know you union guys were laughing at them.

Parker
Click to expand...
I used a smooth steel (H Dick, I still have it) and I suspect most others did also, but not all others. We actually processed more than than, but we started with primals, not live animals.
 
OK. And when I said “1/2 hour early”, it wasn’t like each person spent 30 minutes on the stones. There was coffee drinking, there was discussion of local and world affairs, there was opening of the cooler and railing out the first carcasses of the day. But everyone who wanted to touch up on the Tri-hone got their chance. Sorry for not phrasing that better.

My sense of the OP was that this lady’s knives were dulling prematurely on her when she cut meat. I believe she could renew their sharpness by touching up on a smooth steel when that happened. I think you and I agree more than disagree about that. Of course there are other factors to consider, which others have mentioned - the knife quality and cutting board material stand out to me. But if she’s still reading, I think she can be well on her way to some significant improvements by making a few simple changes.

Parker
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top