LF a good carving knife

[masraum]

Just three words.

Cold Steel Katana!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by 911 Rod

I never thought about the ceramic plate.

She tosses them all in the S.S. sink to wash.

Yikes!

Yes, anything hard, will dull the blade, hard cutting boards, hard sinks, etc...

Even leaving a knife dirty or wet or heaven forbid, running one through the dishwasher.

The dirty/wet thing is also about oxidation at a much smaller scale. You don't see it, but it's supposedly happening anyway.

[911 Rod]

Originally Posted by masraum

Just three words.

Cold Steel Katana!

The chicken was already decapitated when I bought it!

[Evans, Marv]

I'm not an expert but got tired of fairly cheap knives and wanted something better, while not wanting to spend an arm & leg. The fact my wife is terrible on knives factors into it also. I bought a Zwilling Pro, 7 in. Rocking Santoku for $90 (Amazon). It's become my go-to knife when I need a healthy bladed knife. I steel it on a regular basis, and it stays very sharp. I prefer the shape of the blade over others. In fact I bought another one with a 5.5 in. blade that I also use a lot.

[stevej37]

Originally Posted by 911 Rod

The chicken was already decapitated when I bought it!

My G'pa taught me how to use this for chicken heads....took two people and a change of shirt.

[rusnak]

Well, I like Shun knives but they dont fit your criteria. Polished perfection, crazy sharp.

I would go to a restaurant supply place and look for a carbon steel knife. They can get much sharper than stainless, but they need to be resharpened and they rust but this is what you want. A Japanese carbon steel cleaver would be my go-to for butchering meat.

[vash]

i can get away with a 10" chef knife from Wustof. it is my oldest blade and it does it all.

cutting up a chicken is easy if you let the bird's weight do some of the work. pick it up and touch some of the joints and gravity almost pulls it apart. youtube has some good videos.

right now i am all about my inexpensive Chinese cleaver. i use the CCK 1303 which really exploded in price when Christopher Kimball, (americas test kitchen) give it his blessings.

any knife will get dull and useless, so knowing how to sharpen is essential.

[vash]

i actually had some of them out for sharpening and i took a quick pic.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

I'm not an expert but got tired of fairly cheap knives and wanted something better, while not wanting to spend an arm & leg. The fact my wife is terrible on knives factors into it also. I bought a Zwilling Pro, 7 in. Rocking Santoku for $90 (Amazon). It's become my go-to knife when I need a healthy bladed knife. I steel it on a regular basis, and it stays very sharp. I prefer the shape of the blade over others. In fact I bought another one with a 5.5 in. blade that I also use a lot.

I like a santoku knife, preferably with a shallow belly, compared to a chef's knife. I usually prefer Japanese style knives.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by stevej37

My G'pa taught me how to use this for chicken heads....took two people and a change of shirt.

I've not witnessed it, but my mom told me and her grandparents had animals for food, that a way to kill a chicken is to grab it by the head/neck and snap it almost like you were popping a whip. The theory is that the neck breaks and you don't have to chase them around. My great grandfather lost one of his arms in a hunting accident. He apparently made "attachments" for the nub for different tasks. It could be that the neck snapping thing was something that he did since he only had one hand. I don't know.

[stevej37]

^^^ I think the reasoning for chopping the head off was that the chicken would take off and bleed out fast. One person could do it with a hatchet, but we always used an axe and a person to hold the chicken. As soon as the head was off...chase it down and start the plucking.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by rusnak

Well, I like Shun knives but they dont fit your criteria. Polished perfection, crazy sharp.

I would go to a restaurant supply place and look for a carbon steel knife. They can get much sharper than stainless, but they need to be resharpened and they rust but this is what you want. A Japanese carbon steel cleaver would be my go-to for butchering meat.

We have (and I like) Shun "Classic" knives. They are good knives, and a plus for us was that they were attractive (and stainless with handles that won't dry out) which ticked some boxes for the missus since our knives are on a magnetic holder and therefore visible.

Attractive, sharp, fairly durable, and they hold their edge well.

I like their classic blonde knives, and their premium, but not that we have the classics, I have to stick to one style for aesthetic's sake.

Shun Classic


Shun Classic Blonde


Shun premium


Bob Kramer makes some REALLY nice looking (and I'm sure their performance is top notch as well) kitchen knives.

[TimT]

Those Shuns are some coin... and the Kramer...are big bucks... and require getting on a waiting list to get one sometimes..

[TimT]

I have a bunch of Global knives... and a bunch of assorted other makes..

[javadog]

One of these, 20 bucks max.

[gtc]

I like Shuns and Globals, but i wouldn't suggest them for working with raw meat. The handles are too straight, and get too slippery when your hands are covered in fat and meat juice. Large, ergonomic, plastic handles are the way to go.

[Rusty Heap]

Get a good cleaver.

[masraum]

It's weird that this has never come up before...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/1068268-have-we-talked-kitchen-knife-sets.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/839071-best-kitchen-knife.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/830169-more-kitchen-knife-talk-questions.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/878724-kitchen-knives-daughter.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/737185-need-recommendations-chefs-knife.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/784310-kitchen-knives.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/651351-kitchen-knives.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/477458-what-knives-new-cook.html

[mjohnson]

Something cheap (probably rhymes with "Kiwi") from a place like wokshop.com or, to be fancy, a honesuki from jck or some other asian specialty knife joint. It's typically a 70-30 or more single sided bevel and while stout I wouldn't hack at a real bone with it. Classically used for disassembling a chicken or other bird, but could be used for anything else.
https://japanesechefsknife.com/collections/boning-knife

[drcoastline]

You need more than one knife just like you need more than one socket or screwdriver.

A good paring knife, filet knife, chef's knife and a cleaver. All serve a different purpose. But the main thing you need is to keep them sharp. So a means to sharpen, look at other threads for options, I personally use the wet sand paper method and a steel for in between.

For a paring knife you can buy a decent one right at Walmart or Marshall's. $6 dollars or so.

For a filet knife go to fishing department of Walmart, Dicks, Bass pro They have Mustad, Victorinox and a bunch of others. I personally have a Dexter they come in various lengths 6",7", 8" or 9" and various flexibility. Get an 8" or 9" medium. About $15.00.

Your Chef's knife should have some decent heft, 1/8" thickness, from time to time you can find Wusthof, Henkels and some other decent knives in Marshall's in the $20 to $30 range.

Walmart has light duty cleavers by Farberware that are nice for around $12.Good for a chicken or dividing a small rack of ribs.

I would also scour yard sales and Fleamarket's. You can find some great old Chef's heavy knives and cleavers with full tangs, riveted wood handles that just need a good cleaning and sharpening. You can get them cheap if you don't mind doing a little work and with all the knives the key is taking care of them. You use on a good cuttingboard, you don't throw them in the dish washer, you hand wash and dry and put them away and keep them sharp.