Victorinox 10 inch Breaking Knife—Early Impressions

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I've been a strict carnivore, by which I mean that I eat only animals and no plant foods (fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, spices, etc.), for 28 months. My wife is also a strict carnivore. The majority of our diet is steak. I buy whole slabs of meat and cut them into steaks myself, such as buying a ~20 pound ribeye. I cut lots of meat into steaks, typically several steaks per day.

When I started, I was poorly equipped, using whatever cheap kitchen knives I could find. Then I upgraded slightly, to using my Swiss army knives, Boker pocket knife, Busse and Scrapyard knives. They worked better, but were not at all ideal for the job. Then I got a cheap Wusthof 6 inch chef knife for cutting steaks. It was a huge improvement, but still far from great. When freshly sharpened, it would take perhaps a minute to cut a steak off a slab with it, and when dulled (and it dulls quickly) it would take perhaps 2 minutes of trimming and cutting through the fat, gristle, cartilage, silver skin, etc. to cut a steak off a slab.

One day I was watching a Youtube video of a couple professional butchers discussing in detail how they break down and process a whole cow into steaks for stores. They mentioned the tools they used, one of which was the Victorinox 10 inch Breaking Knife. The video showed them using the knife, and—wow!—they made cutting steaks with that knife look so easy. I added that knife to my wish list, and my awesome wife got it for me for Christmas.

I've been using it every day, as a dedicated steak cutter, and I've cut perhaps 40 steaks with it over the last couple weeks. It arrived reasonably sharp, about as sharp as a Swiss Army Knife. After cutting 40ish steaks with it, there are no signs yet of any dulling—which is much better than the Wusthof. This is a fairly cheap knife, under $50 I think, and you can tell when you use it. It has a cheap feeling plastic handle—but the handle keeps its grippiness fantastically, even when my hand is coated with blood and grease. It's no-frills. But it cuts like a laser! The blade shape and size are absolutely perfect for the task. The blade geometry and edge geometry are also flawless for the task. I can cut a steak with it in under 5 seconds. Perfect, smooth, even cuts all the way through. Tough bits of fat, gristle, silver skin, etc. don't slow this knife down at all. It slices through them like nothing. It can handle a large, full sized steak with no problem. No hand strain.

For anyone looking for a knife for similar kinds of use, I recommend it, so far.

I love this knife!
 
You see a lot of those in butcher shops. That long curved blade looks like an excellent slicer. The Fibrox handle looks like a very ergonomic design. I've read varying reports about the steel Victorinox uses in their kitchen cutlery; nice to hear you have had a good experience. Thanks for the review.
 
Their steel is pretty good,i have old f dick scimitar knife with wooden handle,even better than victorinox that are excellent.
 
Smatchet for the win!

I am partial to the Old Hickory butcher knives for meat processing.
 
This would be cool to see you prepare some cuts of meat.
 
Good info on the knife. But I also kind of like the carnivore diet, lol. I'm not to that extreme, but my running joke with the wife is: The beef eat the grass, I eat the beef. :D
 
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To the OP or anyone who has one of these, to what do you attribute the knife's great cutting ability? Thin edge, harder steel, geometry, something else? I've always heard that Victorinox steel can take a good edge if it is the stock is thin, but that it is also soft so I am very surprised to hear that the edge holds up under use.
 
My wife cut meat for over 15 years professionally. We have a bunch of those Vic Forschner's. She has one that's similarly curved, 14" and real heavy she calls her halibut knife (I use it on fowl), also have the 10" breaking knife and various boners and slicers. Good utility knives, most have been taken to a grinder (sharpener), a few boning knives are sharpened to about 2/3's of their original size or less. They are relatively cheap knives that are a wear item in a butcher shop. Most won't last a year but the steel is decent, they hold a good edge and are easy to retouch which is extremely important in a shop environment, you can't make beautiful cuts of meat w/a dull knife. Good butchers will try and cut a steak w/only 1 stroke. Those knives are the standard for meat shops.
 
...to what do you attribute the knife's great cutting ability? Thin edge, harder steel, geometry, something else?

I'd attribute it mainly to the thin stock with a flat grind, and the long, curved blade profile, but it also helps that it came decently sharp out of the box.
 
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