A butcher is only as good as the knife he or she uses. A dull, rusty blade will result in haggard, contaminated cuts of meat, but a sharp knife designed for a specific butchering purpose will serve as an extension of the butcher’s own arm and create incredibly precise and clean cuts every time.
So how does a butcher choose the best butcher knives? How do they know what the best butcher knives are for their specific needs? At Bunzl Processor Division, we know that among all the knives a person should own, butchers require even more specialization with their blades.
Here’s what every butcher should look for when building their butchering arsenal:
Three Essential Knives for Butchers
There are dozens of kinds of professional knives, and every butcher will have their preferences and needs depending on whether they’re in a large meat processing plant, a small butcher shop, or a grocery store deli. Among those many options, there are three essential types of knives usually found in every butcher’s collection:
1. Traditional Butcher Knives
The number one knife every butcher needs is, appropriately, a butcher knife. Butcher knives are used for chopping and breaking down meat, and usually have a curved blade to make precision cutting around bone easier. Butcher knives are useful for meats that require a sawing motion. A high-quality butcher knife that is properly honed and sharpened can last for decades.
2. Cleavers
Butchers use cleavers to cut through the bone rather than around it and to chop straight through more tender meats like chicken or duck. The thick, hatchet-style blade hacks through bone with ease and also makes for an excellent crushing tool during food preparation. The weighty design gives cleavers excellent momentum for quickly chopping down large hunks of meat.
3. Boning Knives
For deboning, trimming, and neatly slicing cuts of meat or fish, no butcher’s scabbard is complete without boning knives. Boning knives can vary in both style and in use, with some having large rigid blades that can chop as well as any butcher knife, and others being comprised of slim, flexible blades that enable even greater precision when trimming.
Six Other Types of Knives Butchers Might Need
Butchers typically don’t need very many knives to do their job well and often prefer one style over all others, but in certain situations, they may need something different. Here are seven other types of knives commonly used by professional butchers:
1. Breaking Knives
Similar to a butcher knife, breaking knives are useful for tough meats that require sawing or slicing through rather than chopping. Breaking knives tend to have a smaller blade than butcher knives and are useful for meticulous butchering or cutting through tough spots like cartilage.
2. Paring Knives
Being much smaller than most of the other knives butchers use, a paring knife can be useful for separating smaller cuts of meat from bones and fat. Additionally, paring knives are also ideal for cutting vegetables.
3. Fillet Knives
Butchers who handle fish and other seafood will find a good fillet knife invaluable to their knife collection! Fillet knives make cleanly slicing and filleting fish a breeze thanks to the long, narrow blade. If you’re a butcher who works with seafood regularly, you’re going to want to add a fillet knife or two to your shopping cart!
4. Steak Knives
Steak knives are useful for cutting steaks (as the name indicates). A butcher who needs to cut down steaks regularly may still find it nice to have a steak knife or two handy. Steak knives come in a variety of sizes and can have either a scimitar or bullnose shape.
5. Chef Knives
Chef knives are a household favorite because they are so versatile! A chef knife can serve as a replacement blade for cutting, cleaving, slicing, and sawing. That said, a chef knife usually won’t do the job as effectively as a knife specifically designed for a single task. They’re more likely to be used by restaurant chefs who need to cut many different food items than butchers who work exclusively with meats.
6. Specialty Knives
Some situations require a more unique approach than a basic butcher knife collection can satisfy. Specialty knives vary significantly in style, size, shape, and use, offering solutions to peculiar needs that aren’t common with most butchers. Some examples of specialty knives include:
- Curved shaping knives
- Clam knives and oyster knives for butchers who work with shellfish
- Double-bladed keel knives for boning certain kinds of fowl
- And loin knives for curving around meat and stripping the loin
Best Knife Brand for Butchers: INOX Pro
When butchers find the knife they love, they’re loyal. After all, knives ensure butchers are comfortable and confident in their butchering processes!
The best knife brand for butchers—offering high-quality blades to suit every need—is INOX Pro Cutlery. INOX Pro knives are engineered to be longer lasting and stay sharp longer than any other knife on the market. The ergonomic handles make INOX Pro knives comfortable to use for longer, easing the fatigue of a long day of chopping and slicing and boning.
One reviewer—a butcher for over 30 years—praised the INOX Pro Boning Knife for how well it eased his fatigue when cutting eight hours a day. “This is a quality knife that I use daily for work,” he shared, “The shape of the knife makes cutting eight hours a day easier and it holds a good edge.”
INOX Pro knives are not just another knife to put in your block or scabbard. When you invest in an INOX Pro knife for your butcher shop, you are purchasing your new favorite knife.
