first butchering - sharpening knives and where to cut (helpful links!)

[RareBreedFancier]

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There it is! I read your blog a few weeks ago and couldn't find it again. It's safely bookmarked this time, not sure how I missed doing that last time.

You have pics of all the things a first timer desperately needs to know, thank you so much for taking the time to put all that together.

Now to deal with the 15+ extra roos I have...

 

[yinepu]

I can put a razor sharp edge on a blade with a steel.. learned how because i had to for my job (slaughtering and butchering)

yet my ex husband could take a nice sharp knife and remove the sharp edge off it in two seconds trying to use a stone or steel.. god knows how many times I TRIED to show him the proper angle and how it was done.. he had it in his head that he saw a video on how to do it and i was doing it wrong.. even though i could prove time and time again that after a few seconds i could have a razor sharp edge... yeah.. he was an idiot!

 

[yinepu]

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been there done that... but I was the three year old kid having to hold down the heads while my mother would swing the axe... ever tried holding down the head on a tough old rooster while she swings the axe again cause the first cut didn't make it?.. too much blood.. flopping roo... it's a wonder i have any fingers left (and a wonder i didn't have nightmares for years of her and that axe)!

 

[Abirdbrain]

Ya, I know. The first time I helped, was a shock. But Grampa was very stoic and unsmiling, during my initiation to Sunday Chicken and dumplings.
For years we little tykes crawled around in the sand under the front porch behind the lattice, where the hens laid eggs we collected, and Gramma tossed the kitchen waste. We used to Play ( ok, maybe terrorize would be better word) with the Hens alot. We werent allowed to use Grampas TV.
An old freind was over today, and was amazed at the chicken things I knew. I called them Little Dinosaurs and he laughed. I tossed in a green frog killed by the mower, and he was shocked by the bedlam, as the hens dismembered the amphibian. They ARE velocoraptors!

 

[fourgotten]

Sharpening knives has some art and some science in it.

The first thing that you should do is look at your knife blade. Look at it from all angles... down the blade from the tip, from the haft, from each side, from dead-on with a good light shining down on it. You want to look for irregularities and inconsistencies in the blade's grind. An ideal blade has an even grind on both faces which goes from the hilt to the tip and meets in the middle of the blade instead of over to one side. Your blade is probably not like that. Most aren't... it's nothing to do with you... just the way that they were ground when manufactured.

Once you have determined what kind of work your blade needs, get your stones ready. I recommend at least three good water stones (meaning that they use water instead of oil as the medium) in varying grits from course to fine. If you have an extra fine one, that makes for an easier polish on the blade. Stones grind, hone, or remove material from the blade and use water or oil as a medium. Don't use your stone dry. It'll prematurely wear the stone and clog it up.

Determine the angle to grind your blade. The angle that you use makes a marked difference in the durability and sharpness of your knife. For your purposes, 15 degrees from the center plane of the knife would be a fairly good angle. I'd suggest that you use a wedge between your blade and the stone in order to keep a consistent angle on your edge. Keep the blade in contact with the stone, edge away from you, and stroke the knife against the stone away from you. Make sure that you have the appropriate medium on the stone at all times, be it oil or water. Continue with long, even strokes until the entire blade on each side is ground to the appropriate angle. When finished, you'll find that there's a slight burr on the "up" side of the blade.

Move to the next finer stone and repeat the process. You'll need to make fewer strokes on this stone... you're smoothing out the rough grind from the coursest stone. Once you've ground off the burr from the course stone and raised a new burr from the finer stone, move to the next finer stone. Repeat until you're on your finest stone. Be sure to use very light pressure... you want to polish the edge of the blade, not bend it.

Once you've worn the burr off, you can move to leather strop if you have one, or use a couple of layers of newspaper on a counter top as a strop. The stropping process further polishes the edge of the blade and wears it to a much smoother, more consistent edge. To strop the blade, lay it flat (or at a slight angle if using the countertop... no greater than the angle at which you ground it) on the strop, edge away from you, and pull it toward you. Roll the blade over the flat (back) of the knife until the other side is laying on the strop and pull THAT edge along the strop. Continue alternating sides of the blade and strop at least 20 strokes on each side.

I always test my blades by dry-shaving a small patch of hair from my forearm, but you can bypass this test if you like. Do feel perpendicular to the blade to make sure that your burr is worn off.

While using your knife, if it starts to drag, that's where a butcher's steel comes in (as long as it's not one of those with grit embedded in it, like diamond grit or aluminum oxide... those are TERRIBLE!!!!). Your steel should be smooth metal with lines cut in it from end to end. it should not be rough, or gritty.

As the blade is used, the edge begins to curl over. It's just the way that a steel blade is... if you don't like it, use ceramic and forget everything else that I've written. To straighten the edge again use a steel. This pushes the edge back to a straight form. Someone else already described using a steel... it was a good enough description that I can't add to it.

A strop will also pull the edge back into shape and I like to keep mine handy when doing anything that I know will quickly dull my knife. Again, paper can work well as a strop, provided it's not shiny.

 

[junglebird]

Well, day 2 of butchering didn't really go any better than day one. I scruffed the neck, but I still managed to cut in the wrong spot (rabbis study for years to learn to do this correctly for kosher slaughter!). Also, it was really hot and my cone was set up in direct sunlight, so coagulation was a problem.

I hope these 2 videos will help me hit that sweet spot today:

fourgotten - your description of the honing steel had me re-evaluating my crappy one. So, now armed with a new victorinox paring knife, a new honing steel, and a closer "target" in mind, I'm hoping today goes better.

I've been dreading it.

 

[anderson8505]

http://youtu.be/5_S3P0eU0lE

Try this link for those who are newer to butchering their own chickens.

 

[mommissan]

I'm no expert in butchering chickens. I have only butchered one. I used an 8" kitchen knife that I sharpened with a gimmicky gadget called an Accusharp sharpener.

http://www.accusharp.com/

It's cheap, but works well for me. I tied mine by the legs from a fence post. The knife was plenty sharp, but I should have used a funnel or bag as aforementioned. There was a lot of messy flapping. Next one should be easier. Love all the great advice!

 

[mommissan]

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I like this idea!

 

[galanie]

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The problem with all the videos I've seen on steeling a knife is that the person in the video looks to be steeling correctly only in the first stroke or on the side facing himself. Then the knife is obviously at something closer to 45 than 22 degrees! So if you do it just like the guy in the video... grats, you've messed up the edge. I have to steel my knife slowly to do it right, when I try to do it quickly I end up messing it up usually.