Bone knife

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timelinex

Joined
Jul 30, 2020
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Can someone recommend a good quality, sharp, and durable knife to cut around bone. (I'm guessing it would be some kind of heavy cleaver?) I'm not looking to specifically cut through big bones, but just for it to hold up to it incidentally. A typical use would be separating out a cooked whole chicken. We try to cut along joints and not through bone, but alas bone is hit and I want to be able to get through it without harming the knife.

I have a inexpensive knife set Cleaver that I use and it's not only not that sharp even after sharpening, but it has chipped (indented into the edge) in the past very easily.
 
Try Ontario's "Old Hickory" knives. Good steel,easy to sharpen. Knifecenter carries them.
Rich
 
Any decent chef's knife will do fine, especially on a cooked chicken. I have Wusthoff Gourmet that is pretty soft and it does just fine on all my tasks to include breaking down raw chickens and hacking through the backbone.

Steel it before and after.

The Japanese approach this mainly through thickness and heavier bevels. The western approach is softer, tougher, all around steels.

Do you sharpen your knives?
 
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Eli Chaps said:
Any decent chef's knife will do fine, especially on a cooked chicken. I have Wusthoff Gourmet that is pretty soft and it does just fine on all my tasks to include breaking down raw chickens and hacking through the backbone.

Steel it before and after.

The Japanese approach this mainly through thickness and heavier bevels. The western approach is softer, tougher, all around steels.

Do you sharpen your knives?
Click to expand...
I just learned how to sharpen on DMT stones. My Wusthoff is razor sharp, but after seeing what happened to the clever, I didn't want to ruin the edge! I have a cheap steel, that I've been hesitant to use on my better knives, so I just bought a "Messermeister Ceramic Rod Knife Sharpener".
 
You can pull the joints of cooked chicken apart with your fingers, so as long as you're slicing through the joints you shouldn't have too much trouble.

Not sure how inexpensive your clever is but if it is cheap enough, it's not surprising you're having trouble with it.

Here's my 6" Wusthoff after breaking down two raw chickens. This was after several previous ones over the prior weeks.

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Eli Chaps said:
You can pull the joints of cooked chicken apart with your fingers, so as long as you're slicing through the joints you shouldn't have too much trouble.

Not sure how inexpensive your clever is but if it is cheap enough, it's not surprising you're having trouble with it.

Here's my 6" Wusthoff after breaking down two raw chickens. This was after several previous ones over the prior weeks.
Click to expand...

Not much pulling can be done on a HOT out the oven cooked chicken :p
 
My 2 cents, all knives get dull when they hit bone some steel especially cheap ones faster than others. I think your cleaver is probably just a really cheap steel. I would say try your wusthoff and try and cut the joints as others have recommended. I bet it doesn't get dull nearly as quickly.
 
Eli Chaps said:
Um, ok... Best of luck.
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What I said was a bit tongue in cheek!
Black Oak Bladeworks said:
My 2 cents, all knives get dull when they hit bone some steel especially cheap ones faster than others. I think your cleaver is probably just a really cheap steel. I would say try your wusthoff and try and cut the joints as others have recommended. I bet it doesn't get dull nearly as quickly.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice.

What is a heavy cleaver for then?
 
I find fish fillet knives to be the best "boning" knives that I own. Sharp, thin, flexible and pointy to get in all of the nooks and cranies around the bones of beef, pork, chicken or whatever I am trying to debone.

Most of the filet knives I own I bought at Bass Pro. They are made of stainless steel and didn't cost more than $10-20. They all work fine. The nicest one that I own that I also bought at Bass Pro cost a bit more and made in Finland by J. Martitiiini.

I also own a carbon steel boning knife that I inherited my father, who was a sous chef. It's a good knife but but I find it too thick/stiff to do any detailed boning work with but it's part of my arsenal of knifes of varying sizes, shapes and lengths that are available to tackle any boning job.

However, I woudn't need any of these knives to segment a cooked chicken which a job that can be done just w/your hands and a paring knife to cut through a few joints and separate the breast meat from the sternum and ribs.

As for cleavers, I've got 3 Chinese cleavers of varying size (S,M & L) that can handle most job. The S/M cleavers are used mainly for slicing and only the largest one is used to chop through chicken/duck and smaller pig/beef bones. If you've ever seen a chicken/duck cut up "Chinese style" for serving, this is the cleaver I would use for that.

For bigger jobs, I've got a 2.5# cleaver that will chop through just about anything you'd bring home, including ribs, ox/pig tails, shanks and other thick bones.

Gotta have the "right" tool for the job.
 
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Some cleavers are for vegetables and not meant for bones. Maybe that’s what yours is?
 
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