# What Do You Use as Butcher Knives?



## mise_en_place (Jul 6, 2020)

What are you using in your places of work and for what? I've got a bunch of knives for butchery tasks, because I work as a whole animal butcher. Kind of curious what those of you in pro kitchens and butcher shops use for meat and fish/seafood. Non pros, please feel free to chime in. I wasn't sure what was the best subforum for this.

Here's my collection. I've used all of these knives at work to some extent. Some much more than others.








*L & I J #9 Cleaver:* This weighs 3.5 lb/1.6 kg. It's no joke. I bought it mostly for fun and to practice chining pork ribs by hand.

*12" Carbon Dexter Scimitar:* Another old piece. Used sparingly at work. Cool piece to have around. 

*210mm Suisin Yo Deba in AUS-8: *Beast of a knife. Great for cutting whole fish as well as portioning/cubing boneless meat. 

*8" Silverthorn Fillet/Trimmer in 01:* A new addition. Handy for separating beef loin from sirloin as well as trimming up large items like bavettes and brisket. Also does a really good job riding the feather bones on rib primals and pork shoulders/beef chuck. Haven't used it on fish yet, but I imagine it'll slay. Excited to try daimyo oroshii on some salmon soon.

*180mm Masamoto KK Deba in White:* Bought it to mess around with at work. We almost exclusively buy whole fish, so it was fun to play around with. My boss has a bigger deba, but he doesn't keep it very sharp, so I bought my own. 

*180mm Dalman Prototype Hankotsu:* You can read about my thoughts on this on Robin's Instagram. Cool knife. Steel is sweet and tough as hell. Also works well on any possible home invaders. Our dishwasher refers to it as the Swedish bayonette.

*180mm Garasuki from JKI in semi-stainless:* Another beast of a knife that doesn't feel too big even on tiny chickens. I actually got rid of one of my 155mm honesuki in favor of this knife. Comes in handy around Thanksgiving, when we do an ungodly amount of those giant birds. 

*180mm Hankotsu from JKI in semi-stainless:* Really good edge retention. Reacts well to the honing steel (don't be mad at me, Jon). Fan of this knife for anything I prefer a stiff boning knife on. Happy to use it when I break beef and hogs, but I usually use something with flexibility. 

*6" Silverthorn Boning Knife in 01:* I've got two of these. I bring them to work on alternating weeks, usually. Sharpen one before my week starts. Use it all week. Then use the other one the week after. Really big fan of these knives. I wish they were a true 6" or even 6.5" and a little less flexible, but I've gotten to used to them and I love them. 

*145mm ko Deba:* My girlfriend's parents had this in storage for 20 years. When they cleaned out their storage unit, they offered it to me. I cleaned it up enough to be useful again. Still some gnarly chips, but I've messed around with it at work on some smaller fish like tilapia and mackerel. Still needs some TLC. 

*145mm Dao Vua Honesuki:* Tough rustic chicken killer. I bring it to work because I don't worry about coworkers knocking it around the chicken board. It is a shop favorite (because I keep it sharp). 

So, like I said, what do you use and for what? It makes sense most of our discussions are about more general purpose knives, but I think it'd be fun to talk about people's preferences across the board.


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## mise_en_place (Jul 9, 2020)

@M1k3 That cheap hankotsu of any use to you?


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## M1k3 (Jul 9, 2020)

mise_en_place said:


> @M1k3 That cheap hankotsu of any use to you?


Yes. I use it regularly for for taking rib bones off ribeye and it works surprisingly well on silverskin. 

Also used it a few times as a line knife. On purpose. Was worth the weird looks from those that try to use my knife without asking.


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## mise_en_place (Jul 9, 2020)

M1k3 said:


> Yes. I use it regularly for for taking rib bones off ribeye and it works surprisingly well on silverskin.



Do you sheet the bones off of whole primals, or are you removing each rib bone individually, leaving the intercostal meat?



M1k3 said:


> Also used it a few times as a line knife. On purpose. Was worth the weird looks from those that try to use my knife without asking.



I'm sure it wasn't their favorite for mincing herbs haha


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## M1k3 (Jul 9, 2020)

mise_en_place said:


> Do you sheet the bones off of whole primals, or are you removing each rib bone individually, leaving the intercostal meat?
> 
> 
> 
> I'm sure it wasn't their favorite for mincing herbs haha


Sheet off whole.

They didn't like it for anything. I felt like Emperor Palpatine each time someone tried but couldn't use it.


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## mise_en_place (Jul 11, 2020)

M1k3 said:


> Sheet off whole.



Cool. Do you use the back ribs for family meal?

I'd love to hear from @Chuckles and @daveb . I know they have some badass knives from Harner (who I haven't tried yet) and Marko. @thebradleycrew had a sweet honesuki from Marko up for sale not too long ago.

I've also seen some HVB boning knives. Would love to hear from some people who have used those.


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## M1k3 (Jul 11, 2020)

Used them for Happy Hour, which hasn't been a thing lately. And family meal is a foreign concept there. I'm moving on from that place though. The knife is going with me.


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## Ericfg (Jul 15, 2020)

Here's mine. The top two are current usage; Henckels 32404-230mm for the big stuff and a Victorinox 5.6413.15 for the finer things. The Vici was a 'rescue'; found it in a rack in the basement at work, dusty and abused (dull as dishwater, actually.) Took it home to sharpen it and 'forgot' to return it. This one took quite a while to get a working edge on it.
The bottom two sit in a block at home now. They only come out for photo ops. Henckels 31086-140mm above and an unmarked 3/4 tang, 7 inch goober that was one of my first forays into work knives back in the late 80s.
CKTG black ceramic hone that sees little use. Late to the party so missed the photos: Shapton 1k whetstone.
I'm in Assisted Living at the moment (Cook, not resident, yet) so mostly I do trimming and portioning. The only primals I work with are brisket at the moment.


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## mise_en_place (Jul 15, 2020)

Nice kit, @Ericfg 

I like the profile of the Victorinox. Is there flex in that blade?


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## Ericfg (Jul 15, 2020)

mise_en_place said:


> Nice kit, I like the profile of the Victorinox. Is there flex in that blade?


Thanks! It says "flexible" on the blade so yes, it is. But not super bendy; it's not got a lot of distal taper(?) so the tip's pretty stiff which is where the majority of my cutting takes place at the moment.


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## Ericfg (Jul 22, 2020)

I forgot about about this guy; a Russell International 49542 cleaver. "Inox", made in Brasil. 6.25 inch edge, 12 inches overall. A hefty 677 grams, 23.9 ounces, 1.5 pounds of cleaver-age and a solid 5mm thickness throughout the majority of the blade. It's about 28 years old and got a bit of use initially but has been relegated to a block in the home kitchen for a long time.
A very oldschool design that needs a little love.


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## panda (Jul 22, 2020)

mostly just use 180mm petty and a 5" fillet


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## dafox (Jul 22, 2020)

panda said:


> mostly just use 180mm petty and a 5" fillet


Which petty?


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## panda (Jul 22, 2020)

Heiji carbon, with shinogi rounded off


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## tgfencer (Jul 26, 2020)

@mise_en_place I agree with you on the 6" Silverthorn. I'm a fan, so much to love, but a tinsy bit too much flex and not always quite what I want it to be. But then what knife is? (I may also be biased though, because I struggle sometimes with sharpening overly flexibly knives with skinny points since I've got big fingers.) Interested to try the 8" though.

I use a Silverthorn 6', cheap carbon honesuki and hankotsu primarily since I'm usually doing primals/whole chickens. Quite like the hankotsu shape and handle profile, there's a lot to love about the style beyond hanging butchery, and I use it on pork fairly regularly. Been considering getting another and sharpening the whole edge.


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## DitmasPork (Aug 9, 2020)

Here's knives that typically come out for butchery tasks. The Yanick suji has been useful for silver skinning and portioning. Not complete, but just what I have.


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