Knives
 

I am looking for recommendations on some good knives for the homestead. We have butchered 1 deer, 3 hogs, and about 100 chickens this year with not one good or even decent knife on the homestead. We are not, like always, wanting to spend an arm and a leg but willing to make a healthy investment on some that will last with this lifestyle. Ideas? Thanks!

Talk to Ernie.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/PossumCreekKnifework

Well,maybe I can actually be of some help for once instead of pok'n ya! My computer can't spell it but I love solegine steel from that town in Germany. I don't know anything about any new production because once you buy one you will never need another so maybe the quality has changed.
I'm going to say i bought mine around 1980. It was a matched set hunting knives, one with a 5" and one with a 3". I had wanted one for years but at $130 it wasn't going to happen. Then one day there they were taunting me at a close out for $35. Boom!Done deal!
OK now back down to earth. That year I skinned and deboned 7 deer and 109 squirrel without having to sharpen them.If you keep them sharp they will stay sharp. Before and after each use I honed them with the inside of my leather belt a few times and in the middle of the process if they needed it.You just can't ask more of a knife than that!
After you get to the point that they do need some attention, use ONLY a "Lansky" type sharpener.They are set up to take the human element out of the equation. You'll be able to keep a good edge on them as long as you live!


Wade--- (the stalkerr)! LOL

The Russell Green River knives are not expensive. The're the ones most professional butchers use. I've had mine for many years - They have butchered many a deer and hog and still just as good as ever. Any of the high carbon knives like Old Hickory are also good.
If you want make a good investment get a set of good DMT diamond stones or a Work sharp Ken Onion model sharpener. A sharp blade makes all the difference.

IMO, a knife is only as good as the person who sharpened it. I have found that "high quality" (as opposed to the ones about as thick as soda can side) knives from Wal-Mart work just as well as the HIGH dollar knives at restaurants the only difference is you have to sharpen them more often.

Again just my opinion but unless you are going to be using a knife for a several hours a week (and very few people do) then all you need to do is get some knives with nice heavy blades and learn how to sharpen them and how to use a steel correctly.

Thanks for posting this Badger! that's good info to have!(But I still love my solegine!)

Wade

I have a couple of those as well, They're excellent. I've got several hand made, hand forged knives from a friend of mine that's a fairly well respected blade smith. He made me one about 20 years ago I call Sting, Its field dressed over 70 deer and countless hogs and I only sharpen it about once a year. I do strop as needed though.I carry a Buck rosewood Vanguard as a backup but have never used it. I have over 200 knives in my collection, some very old, The sharpest one I have is made of obsidian and deer antler. It will make you bleed just looking at it.

cool!

Wb

:hijacked:

LOL brings back good memories!
I was working with a archeologist when we found a site that had a lot of obsidian chips . I warned her to be careful with them but since I was just a Dumb kid and not even a archeological student she ignored me. Picked up lots and bagged them then put them in her pocket.
When we got back to camp most were missing ,they had cut their way out of the bags and worked their way out of her pocket and down her leg. Leaving lots of little cuts she hadn't noticed (to be fair the mosquitos WERE distracting) and the ends of her fingers were cut raw.:yuck:

I like the old carbon steel knives the best.....but I bought a Sabatier. from a thrifty type store for a buck and a half....french knife...retail about $100 to $150...it's one of 3 or 4 stainless knives.....including pocket knives that I own that will hold an edge....and can be sharpened on a regular whetstone...
If I had to start out fresh.....I'd hit the thrift stores and estate sales and ebay....get some good whetstones....Sabatier....original Old Hickory...blue steel commericial knives....Maw got some from A&P when they changed over to stainless...they sharpen up easy.....I'd shore get me a big long handled cleaver off Ebay...something like a "lamb splitter"....if I weren't gonna use a sawzzalll...
I got some "cutco" stuff also....someone was gonna toss them at the dump...I knew they were sorta expensive.....they sure hold a good edge and fit the hand good...loved the price I payed...FREE
Old Old Timer, Case, and Shrade knives are generally pretty good....don't know about the newer ones

Ok. Thanks. I use to cut meat in a small grocery store and got pretty good at getting a decent edge on the knives we used there. I couldn't for the life of me remember the brand we use to use.

Old Hickory from estate and garage sales. Sharpen easily. high carbon steel so take care of the blades. I got a big breaking knife, Old Hickory, been down in a drawer diagonally for a while, I reached in the other day and barely touched it and cut myself.

Ok, this is post I am responding to, see following post for my response, as I cant get my response to show paragraphs and otherwise its unreadable. So used screenshot images of my post. Grrrr.... hope somebody gets some good from my effort.

Go to next post.... GRRR... forgot this forum doesnt want people to delete any post. So bear with me.

http://www.imagesup.net/?di=1214123794224

http://www.imagesup.net/?di=3141237963515

Part2 of original post

http://www.imagesup.net/?di=1414123798415

Ok, hope it shows. Using images is only way I can get paragraphs to show.

I mostly use this brand for butchering.
https://www.google.com/search?q=vict...w=1242&bih=576
I have a big butcher, 2 boning and a skinning knife. They're very sharp and work great. I could just about use the boning knife and a saw for everything when doing a hog. I also have a small bird's beak paring knife that I use in the kitchen all the time.
I got most of mine through amazon but our local Amish hardware store carries the same brand in their butchering supplies section.

Morakniv brand knives are very econimical and one of the highest customer rated knives on Amazon. I bought a few and they are easy to used and require very little care.

I am a huge fan of Rada knives. I am a huge stickler for sharp knives especially when I'm using them for cutting up a deer or cleaning fish or birds. For the longest time I would only us Rapala knives for cleaning and boning but now have since changed to Rada.

Give them a look. I give them for Christmas presents all the time and everyone whom I gave them to loves them. One other bonus is they are 100% made in the USA out of small company in Iowa.
http://www.radacutlery.com

I don't mean to thread hijack, but what type (not so much brand, but size/style) of knife(s) would be recommended for slaughtering and butchering a steer? We don't usually DIY that, but the last time we had to (emergency situation), DH broke my carving knife while bleeding out an old cow.

Good recommendations.

I'd also suggest a #12 Boyd-Parker autopsy scalpel blade with an autopsy scalpel handle. The blades aren't sterile, so they're a lot cheaper, disposable and razor sharp. The handles are fatter than you normally find in surgery and fill the hand better.

I bought some from Cornerstone farm ventures that I like. Probably not the best there is, but their prices are decent and they have other poultry processing equipment, so I can save on shipping by ordering several things together. They are plastic handled knifes and some are even color coded for different uses. This may not matter to you now, but if you ever start selling any, it will be nice to help with some USDA sanitation requirements. They have many different kinds and a short explanation for what most are commonly used for.

http://www.cornerstone-farm.com/knives

Also not to "hi-jack" but years ago I had 4 deer hanging froze solid for a month. Had to peel them out and while doing so my 3" slipped and It cut 3/5 around my finger and down into the bone.It was layed wide open.I put a butterfly on it and went back to work.You could see the bone was cut 1/16 deep but a cut with a sharp knife is almost painless and the butterfly allowed it to heal in place. It looks like a surgeon did it.

Wade

Ok somebody contacted me and said I didnt really answer the question. They said I should give brand names of actual knives.

Ok, if you want top notch knives to impress your friends, you can find recommendations galore on internet and books on kitchen knives and people trying to sell way overpriced cutlery. Brands like Wusthof Trident or Sabatier Four Elephant or whatever top of line Shun or Global knives are out there. And there are lot of custom knife makers that want even more. Some are made out of exotic powdered steels and hardened to Rockwell 68 and on and on. But as I and others tried to point out, you will be spending whole lot money for something you arent using 8hr a day 24-7.

Seriously a really sharp 50cent knife from thrift store (or your current el crapo knives once they are properly sharpened) will beat out a dull $300 custom high end knife any day. What I am trying to say is learn to sharpen knives properly and seriously you can put a keen edge on ANY knife. If I can put a really sharp edge on a knife selling brand new at Dollar Tree for $1, then any knife can have a sharp edge. The trick is how long it will keep that edge and whether you can duplicate that edge. Once you sharpen that 50cent knife, IF you treat it gently like you would a $300 knife, then the edge will last an amazing amount of time. Use an endgrain wood cutting board or chop block, use a magnetic strip or proper holder so edges of your knives dont bang into each other or hard objects. Dont put knives in dishwasher. And use a cleaver or saw for bones, not a knife. If you take that $300 knife and treat it like carp, then it will dull amazingly fast no matter if it is some exotic stainless steel with Rockwell 68 hardness.

So in special cases of occasional butchering, I would suggest vintage high carbon steel knives sharpened well. They are still pretty cheap so buy a half dozen in your favorite configuration. Brand doesnt matter as long as they are fairly heavy and comfortable for you to wield. I say buy a half dozen just so you arent in middle of something and trying to use a steel or hone or something. Instead sharpen properly all of them before starting. Grab another sharp knife as needed and continue. Once done immediately wash and DRY them, then apply coating of mineral oil.

For day to day use get something stainless like vintage USA made Chicago Cutlery or USA made CaseXX/Forgecraft or USA made Ecko Vanadium Arrowhead or .... Want something new at Walmart, then buy whatever Chinese made knife that is sold as being forged. It will have a stiff heavy blade and a bolster, either full bolster or partial bolster. These tend to come dull or at least badly sharpened, but take good edge and hold it a reasonably long time.. Most arent actually forged, but welded together though they look one piece. Doesnt matter if treated nicely, edge holds up pretty darn well. Occasionally you will find one that weld wasnt done adequately and knife will come apart. Hey its from China, sometimes stuff from China is quite good, sometimes it isnt. Uniform quality control isnt great in China.

Paring knives are the exception. I really dont like stiff wide blade paring knife. I prefer ones that look like a short fillet knife with bit of spring in the blade, and have a plain handle without notches trying to force me to hold them in some prescribed manner or that isolate my hand completely from the blade. ITS A PARING KNIFE, not a sword, I want one that can be easily controlled for fine cutting! I use a chef knife for chopping and slicing. The plain non-stainless carbon steel paring knives are rare and kinda of a pain to maintain since paring knife tends to get used for lot little jobs throughout the day. Who wants to wash, wipe, and oil after every little use. Of the stainless I like the vintage USA Chicago Cutlery 102S. That is the perfect paring knife or as close as it gets to the perfect stainless steel paring knife IMHO.

Be aware Chicago Cutlery still sells knives, but they have cheapened them greatly and all are out of China. They are selling at premium price based on their old reputation. So though some look like the old USA made knives, they arent nearly as good. Their 'forged' lines of knives probably about like all other cheap China forged kitchen knives and servicable. Wouldnt however pay premium for one name over any other for a forged China kitchen knife out of same China factory with just slightly different configuration and name stamped on it..

I have set of Aldi Kitchen Living santoku knives I got for like $7 some year back. The big 7inch santoku (like French chef knife only wide blade all way rather than tapered to point) is my favorite large knife for chopping. Blade like all China forged kitchen blades and stiff and holds edge well. But the handle is best balanced and comfortable of any of this kind of knife I have tried. I have a USA chicago cutlery 8 inch French chef knife and its stamped steel but also has heft and comfortable handle. Easy to sharpen and edge lasts well. Also an old 8 inch simitar no-name carbon steel butcher knife. Even it will chop veggies quite nicely if you learn to grip just top portion of the handle and use the pinch technique to hold the blade. Luckily it didnt get heavily steeled in its former life so has nice shaped bottom rather than camels hump indentation from too frequent steeling.

Well lets see if this posts without removing the paragraph spacing.

HermitJohn it is very nice seeing your posts again.:) You are right on target about using sharp knives. There is no such thing as ''time wasted'' when sharpening a knife.

I'm poor so i have a large old hickory collection.You can't beat yard sale prices and hand me downs. I'm partial to arkansas stone but i live here and got my first set of smith's while in boy scouts.I handled a lot of knives here is my made in america dream knifes.http://www.newwestknifeworks.com/cat...onwood-20-line

I made mine from a blank http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Catego...1/BLADE-CAM-05, they come sharp so you tape the blade while you add the scales , very good steel , takes an edge well holds it well

I have the green river hunter , it does so many things so well it is almost my only knife now when butchering , I do like a 5 inch boning knife I have also I have a quarter for it at a church rummage sale , dig through look for a tarnished grey almost black blade and you have found your knife if the blade shape works

but I am a carbon steel fan this and all my favorite knives are

the price is had to beat 11 dollars for the blank about 15 for the kit with 2 scales and 3 rivets , then a little time to fit it to you http://www.trackofthewolf.com/list/Item.aspx/453/1

there is a reason the camp/hunter blade has been made since the late 1830s with little or no change to the shape , it works

here are my go to knoves for meat cutting , the green rive hunter gets used for almost everything and i carry it daily , I like the 12 inch dexter diamond steel for sharpening

I have a little collection of "Case-XX" knives. That I have acquired or been given, over the years. I grew up loving those Case-XX Knives.

My Dear wife will split up the Collection between my Two Sons, when I am gone, so they will have a little something to remember "Old Pop" by.
And they'll each get a couple of my old Guns, too.
Just nice to leave a Little Legacy for your Sons.