What Knife do younuse to slaughter the birds?

[QueenieBelleB]

Our first batch of meat chickens, we did a nose and yanked the head off and the broomstick method. However we are about to butcher our first ducks soon. We prefered using a noose over the broomstick but we are concerned doing that method with ducks. We want to try slitting the throat with a good knife. I am unsure what knife to get. Google says a henosuki knife?? We are terriblee at keeping our kitchen knives sharp. I want a good knife that will stay sharp.

 

[iwltfum]

I've never met a knife that stayed sharp for very long while making the jugular cut (I get about 20-25 cuts before I need to resharpen). There are so many knives that will do the job, but there are some styles/lengths/widths that you may appreciate more or less. I like Dexter knives for butchering personally. I usually get them from webstaraunt. But you need to go through a poultry specific site like strombergs for the sticking knives. My go-to for the jugular cut is this one from Stromberg's: poultry sticking knife

 

[iwltfum]

There are really good electric sharpeners out there that make dumb and quick work out of knife sharpening. I would seriously look into a high quality counter top sharpener if you aren't comfortable with a sharpening stone

 

[Growley Monster]

Meh. I just use my Buck 110. I keep it sharp. If I got my pants on, I got my knife with me. I use it for everything from eating a steak to carving a pirogue paddle to splitting a deer pelvis to well whatever.

For many tasks, it's not the bow so much as the Indian. In other words, the operator must acquire basic skills in use and maintenance of the tool.

Personally I hate all powered sharpening systems. I don't even use my belt grinder for routine sharpening. You can easily remove about 10x more steel than necessary, create a wonky bevel, and cause premature wear to the knife.

If you want your hand held while sharpening, try the Lansky five stone rod and clamp system. All you have to do, basically, is follow the directions. The stones are mounted to rods that stick into slots on the clamp/guide, the slot corresponding to the desired bevel angle. Start with the coarsest stone and go with it until you see a consistent flat surface on the whole bevel all the way out to the very edge. Then begin progressing up through the grits.

You will probably cut corners here since I am not there to watch you, but you need some GOOD magnification and a GOOD very bright single point of light for a work light. This helps to make a very sharp and precise reflection and it is all about the reflection. My choice, which I MOST HIGHLY RECOMMEND, is the Belomo 10x Triplet loupe. The focal length is long enough to preclude accidental damaging contact with the delicate edge. It has great optical qualities, high clarity, low distortion, EXCELLENT light gathering. Trust me, those cheap charlie loupes on Amazon totally suck. The Belomo is the bee's knees. Don't get the 20x, it is a completely different instrument.

To read the bevel, set the blade so that the light reflects brightly from the bevel face. Roll it slightly and the reflection should zip off the bevel. That's how you determine that the bevel is fully set, out to the edge. Also turn the knife edge up, and tip it back toward you and forward away from you, and look for little sparkles on the edge, which tell you that the two bevel surfaces do not meet in a precise edge yet or you have a burr. The best way to deal with a burr is to use extremely light pressure for a considerable number of laps and always alternate a lap on one side, a lap on the other.

In progressive honing, each grit stage must fully do its job before advancing to the next finer grit. Each stage must fully obliterate the scratches left by the previous stage and replace them with its own finer scratch pattern. 400 strokes with your 1k will not help you if you still have giant scratches left from your 100 grit. The coarser stone removes steel faster. The finer grit creates a more refined and polished bevel, and edge.

The Lansky takes time to use because you have to keep switching from one side to the other. (if you want a decent edge, that is.) Only in the initial bevel setting stage should you keep wailing away on one side for multi-multiple laps.

Now here is the secret to keeping a good edge on your knife. Buy and learn to use a butcher's steel. The best ones are smooth with no stupid ridges, but they are rare. I had to make mine on my lathe. Most have the ridges because unknowing people think that they make it more effective somehow when really what they do is beat and batter your poor edge. Properly used, a butcher's steel removes practically zero metal except maybe the odd bit of broken-off burr. What the steel does is align the bent and folded bits of the edge that result from being forced into wood, bone, or other somewhat harder materials. The re-alignment restores much of the used blade's cutting power. The trick is to use the same angle or maybe a degree more than what was used for honing. Let me be clear. I use, hone, and make straight razors. Honing is the controlled removal of metal that leaves behind a nice flat bevel face on each side of the blade that results in a fine, smooth, precise edge. The steel STROPS. Yes, just like a leather strop strops a razor. No steel is removed, only the edge is re-aligned. Both honing and stropping are sharpening because they increase the perceived sharpness of the blade.

You can do without the steel, but it really makes edge restoration fast and easy. Most professional cooks/chefs give their knife a half dozen laps before every use session, and as needed. You could also just use the Lansky system and only use the finest stone, with very light pressure, and it will accomplish the same thing, but take much longer.

https://www.amazon.com/Lansky-Deluxe-5-Stone-Sharpening-System/dp/B000B8IEA4 for the Lansky 5 stone set on Amazon. There are Chinese knockoffs that will save you ten bucks and maybe they are okay, maybe not, but remember Chinese manufacturing is all about making something that looks good enough to sell, not something the maker can take pride in.

Later, you might want to wean yourself away from the Lansky. I would go with a Shapton Kuromaku 320 grit, and Naniwa Chosera 600 and 1000 grit stones. Maybe a 220 grit Suehiro or just a plain old India stone for major edge repair. There is NO NEED to go finer than 1000 grit for most knives, because as soon as they meet cutting block or bone, your 12k edge is roughly a 1k equivelant edge. A well executed 1k edge will gitter done and if it won't cut, it wasn't the bow. It was the Indian.

As for a knife that stays sharp, remember this. Harder means more brittle and more prone to microchipping and micro-cracking at the edge, and also slower sharpening. Softer means more frequent sharpening but the butcher steel is much more effective and honing is faster and easier, too. Both hardness and toughness can be optimized together but only to a point, at which one may only increase at the expense of the other, with changes in the quench and the temper. Remember this, also. A very acute bevel angle makes for an edge that has very intense initial cutting ability, but is extremely fragile. A more obtuse bevel angle makes an edge that lacks the effortless cutting of the very acutely beveled edge, but it is much more robust and FWIW, lasts longer. There is a happy medium in there for every type of knife and every cutting task. Many knowledgeable sharpeners use a compound bevel. They set a very acute bevel and then after the final grit stage, come back to the finest stone and hone with extremely light pressure and a raised angle for only a half dozen or a dozen light laps. This makes a very acute main bevel, and also a more robust microbevel right at the very edge only.

I have carried a Buck 110 now for about 55 years, ever since I was deemed old enough to have outgrown my sheepsfoot Barlow and was ready for a grownup pocketknife. I always have it so I usually use that. But any sharp kitchen knife will do, too. My favorite brand for cooking is Winco USA, their "Stal" line. They have rivetless molded white polypropylene handles and the steel and geometry are good, and the price is hardly more than walmart charges for their Chinesium specials. The KWP-80 is a nice little 8" chef knife, little brother to my go-to, the KWP-100 10" model. The KWP-62 is an excellent boning or utility knife. The KWP-102 butcher knife would be good, or the more sharply pointed KWP-90. All good. They make great filet knives, cleavers, paring knives, all sorts of kitchen cutlery and they don't mind a ride in the dishwasher, either.