Home Butchering, equipment, etc.

Havn't seen any body mention heavy kitchen shears, that is all I use on rabbits, for everything, the feet, skin, head, and even to part them out. Works well with fryers, roasters get a little harder, but still not a problem. Would probably work well on all the small animals. As far as the big stuff goes, a knife, and a stong arm, and ,oh yeah, a sawzall to cut the ribs off. Sawzall goes through them like butter, have only used a course blade, leaves them a little jagged, plan on getting a fine one. I don't bone anything out, seems to waste meat, unless you boil all the bones to get the meat off for stew, ect.

Good point. I want to try a pair of Poultry Shears... they are supposed to make a world of difference for chicken.

One of my problems for chicken is that my hands are so large that it's an awful tight fit pulling the lungs out. They almost always give me a time...

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I haven't seen anyone mention a singletree yet? Do you use them for larger animals?

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Like a gambling stick?

For hogs and cows we do.

Have hoisted 'em several different ways...with a block and tackle tied to a tree limb, with a tractor monkey-tail, boat winch on a pipe tripod. Friend of mine has one of those Harbor Freight hoists in his barn, and that works well.

Something like this, but has little stainless steel hooks on the ends with swivels. My buddy has a nice one that he uses with a chainfall to lift the pigs in his barn. It's nice and sure keeps things clean, it makes skinning them little piggies easier (nope, don't scald)

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I got a couple nice pairs of J.A. Henckels Poultry shears before we did our last batch of broilers. We were doing 100 birds and I didn't want to deal with the hand fatigue that come with using those cheapo kitchen shears. They really did a good job. At 20 buck a pair it was money well spent.

As for getting the lungs out--Get or make a lung puller. I made one out of a cheap metal fish scaler duct taped to a piece of broom handle. Works great. All I have to do is scrape around a bit with that thing and follow up with a spray of water. LOL...let me clarify..I set the spray head on JET and blast all the little bits out. Comes out clean as a whistle.

Shane

We ordered a dozen reground commercial boning knives from Smokey Mtn Knife Works for $5. They have ergonomic handles, came to us sharp enough that a few passes on the steel made them ready to go, and are dishwasher safe. We have only butchered a lamb and some hogs with them so far, but they are working great.

Tonight we sliced bacon on an old commercial meat slicer we got an an auction. Two sides took about 10 minutes to slice.

We had a chain hoist to lift critters with, but got mad at the spare chain and the loop chain hanging down and rubbing the skinned carcass. We replaced it with a cheap 12V winch from Harbor Freight, hung it off the crossbeam even though it says it is not for vertical lifting. It works great. We clip the leads onto the golf cart and put the animal right where we want it.

I got the Carrier unit from a reefer trailer and some day will build a walk in freezer.

Deer is about the biggest animal I butcher but occasionally a pig, wild rabbit, squirrel, and quail.

Tools I use for deer and pig:

Block and tackle pulley for hanging.
Sawzall for cuttin heads and feet off, and splitting carcass.
Northern table saw for making round steaks from the deer hindquarters.
Torrey meat grinder, for grinding meat.
Meat slicer from Cabelas for making jerky strips.
Meat mixer from Norther tools for mixing sausages.
Large sausage stuffer from Cabelas for making various kinds of links, etc.
2 stainless steel tables to work on.
Food dehydrator from Wally World.
Jerky cannon for ground jerky.
Freezer paper holder for wrapping.
Various knives for cutting.
Extra refrigerator to age the meat.
Freezer to keep the meat till needed.
Frying pan to cook the meat.
Table knife, fork, and dinner plate for the steaks or sausage.
24 teeth and 4 false teeth for chewing.
1 commode for final destination of meat.

You just leave it in there?

Well, no! I flush it! I guess it then goes on down to the septic tank and then the latteral lines. Which I forgot to mention!

Gee! Just how technical do we need to get!

I think Cabelas has some Equipment, It's not exactly Industrial But some
of it is OK !

Norton Abrasives has the Oil Tri-Honing Stone Set up that is not to shabby,
they have Over 11" stones to sharpen your Knives.

I have this set up, It works But i do wish i could find some Higher
Quality Stones Or atleast a better higher grit Hard/Smooth stone
and get rid of there Rough stone !!!!!

I also have 8 steels also and many other smaller stones.

The Japanees have Water stones that have a higher grit BUT the stones
are way to small for me !!!

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I'm on the low end of the scale. I kill & slaughter out in the garden so the blood drains into the soil to fertilize it. Offal goes to the compost and dogs. I split the carcass with a bow saw and hang it in the shed. When read I do one half at a time on the kitchen table mostly deboning to bowls and making large cuts with the bow saw (leg, etc). We do have a hand grinder for making sausage. All the meat either goes to the freezer or soup which we can up right away. Bones go to soup base and then the dogs. Skin is salted and saved for selling. Tools include my hunting knife, a fish knife and a parring knife as well as my stone and steel in addition to the bow saw. Nothing dedicated.

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