by Tim Hayward
The feuille de boucher might be suitable for a sheep carcass but may (and I stress may) not be up to the job of a large cow. For this, a contemporary butcher will use a bandsaw, although traditionally a larger feuille would have been used with a longer handle which could be swung, two-handed, like an axe and used to split a hanging carcass down the spine.
BONING KNIFE
BLADE LENGTH: 142MM
OVERALL LENGTH: 271MM
WEIGHT: 94G
MANUFACTURED BY: FORSCHNER/VICTORINOX
MATERIALS: STAINLESS STEEL, ROSEWOOD
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
USES: BREAKING DOWN HANGING CARCASSES, BENCHTOP BONING
IT’S THE BUTCHER’S BONING KNIFE, in its infinite variations, that’s most different from the knife of the same name in the chef’s roll.
Because he’s cutting constantly, the wholesale market butcher (or the one in the straw hat at your local shop) will sharpen his knives daily and steel them, almost as a nervous tic. Within days of purchase the blades will be changing shape and will probably not have a life expectancy beyond six months.
Where the chef carefully removes small pieces of meat by sliding his knife along the bone, the butcher is removing large, heavy pieces, often from a whole carcass either hanging or on a block. Watch a good butcher at a wholesale meat market and you’ll see he constantly changes his grip from the usual position, common to all knife users, to an inverted ‘stabbing’ hold. Held this way, the thin, stiff blade can get deep in along long bones and nick through ligaments around joints. The joint that has supported over a ton of live beef for the whole of its life is an incredibly tough bit of osteo-engineering; it’s not the kind of thing you can separate with the same knife you’d use to take the skin off a lemon sole. The stiff-spined boner has to be rigid enough to force between the massive ball and socket and sharp enough at the tip to nip through the hawser-like tendons that hold them together.
A really skilled butcher ‘breaking down’ a full carcass uses the boning knife more than any other, locating and exploring the joints with the skill of a surgeon, cutting supporting ligaments here and there and letting the huge weight of the meat work in his favour to separate the pieces.
ON CHANGING SHAPE
SHAPE MAY BE ONE OF THE FIRST REASONS you choose a knife. You select the broadly correct shape for the job and then, quite possibly, try several examples, finding the one that feels best in your hand. Initially, it feels ‘new’ and different, but very quickly, unless you’ve been unlucky in your choice, your working and cutting style, your grip and your muscle memory adapt. For many, this may be as far as adaptation goes, a one-way process in which you become accustomed to your new knife, but for anyone who works with a knife over a long period, the process has another side – the knife must adapt to fit you.
When you buy a knife from a hamanoya in Japan, it's common to have it ground to your own cutting style. Some cooks will have a blade single ground from the tip but change to a partial or full double grind as they get closer to the handle. They are aware enough of their cutting style to know that delicate work is done with the tip and belly of the blade, but when hard things have to be cut or joints chopped through, they’ll always use the heel. Some Western cooks sharpen a little of the spine, near the tip, for fine boning work.
When a knife is used and steeled every day it changes shape constantly and subtly. The commercial butcher, taking down his twentieth beef carcass of the day, is deftly using a blade that is, in places, less than one centimetre thick. When he first started using that blade it was a full-size boning knife, yet it has worn down, adapting to him. He has subtly altered the way he grips and moves it. No one else will feel comfortable holding or working with that knife and the day he has to replace it, he puts himself, for a few days, right back at the bottom of the ‘learning curve’.
BONING GOUGE
BLADE LENGTH: 235MM
OVERALL LENGTH: 345MM
WEIGHT: 346G
MANUFACTURED BY: MARTÍNEZ Y GASCÓN
MATERIALS: STAINLESS STEEL, THERMOPLASTIC
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: SPAIN
USE: DETACHING LARGE BONES WITHOUT PENETRATING SURROUNDING MEAT
THE GLORIOUS BONING GOUGE on the left is from Spain, where it would be used in a jamon factory or butcher’s – slipped along the thigh and shank bones to detach the flesh and remove the bone, readying it for packing in the salt and making ham. It’s a beautifully engineered bit of kit, machined in complicated compound curves and sharpened not only along its curved tip but also along both sides.
A boning gouge also makes short work of lamb and venison legs, leaving them easier to carve and providing an interesting little pocket for creative stuffing. Before I found the real thing I had a long and happy relationship with the 1-inch woodturner’s gouge on the right, which cost a fiver on eBay.
MORA 9151P FILLETING KNIFE & 352P GUTTING HOOK
BLADE LENGTH: 151MM (GUTTING HOOK 66MM)
OVERALL LENGTH: 290MM (GUTTING HOOK 252MM)
WEIGHT: 99G (GUTTING HOOK 128G)
MANUFACTURED BY: MORA
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: SWEDEN
MATERIALS: COLD-ROLLED SWEDISH STAINLESS STEEL, GLASS-REINFORCED POLYPROPYLENE
USE: HIGH-VOLUME FISH FILLETING
THE 9151P is one of a range of knives made by Mora of Sweden for the fishing and fish processing industries. The blade has a little flex and holds a good edge but, most importantly, will stand up to incredibly hard use. The glass-reinforced polypropylene handle is moulded on – so no moisture can get between it and the blade and cause rust – and has a rough finish for better grip in rubber gloves on a heaving deck, covered in freezing salt spray and fish blood. This knife is not designed for delicate kitchen filleting but fast, heavy work on large carcasses.
The gutting hook is a short, sharp blade protected by its own curved spine, which can open the abdomen in a single stroke with no danger of nicking the viscera.
Though both are well finished, there’s no element of luxury in materials or design because, for working tools, cost is an important consideration. You may be able to find a supplier who will sell you this kind of knife singly but they’re usually packed in boxes of ten. They are perfectly evolved for the job with no effort wasted on pointless gimmickry or unnecessary decoration. As a result, they have a cold, functional beauty all of their own.
GENZO FIELD BUTCHERY KIT
BLADE LENGTH: 130–160MM
OVERALL LENGTH: 220–300MM
WEIGHT: 85–120G
MANUFACTURED BY: GENZO
MATERIALS: 440-GRADE STAINLESS STEEL, HIGH VISIBILITY THERMOPLASTIC WITH ‘SANTOPRENE’ GRIPS
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: SWEDEN
USES: SKINNING, GUTTING AND BREAKING DOWN CARCASSES IN THE FIELD
IT IS IN THE NATURE of professional game hunting that the hunter will likely find himself somewhere extremely remote with a large and valuable carcass. If not handled properly very soon after death, most game will deteriorate quickly. The animal must, therefore, be bled, gutted and sometimes skinned ‘in the field’. If the hunter has support and transport, the whole carcass can be recovered; if not, prime cuts must be carried out and the remains left for natural scavengers.
The Genzo company in Sweden makes a range of knives for hunters and outdoorsmen. This field butchery kit contains compact versions of a butcher’s steak and boning knives, a curved skinner’s blade, a gutting or ‘gralloching’ knife with an inverted blade, along with a steel.
To prevent contamination, the animal should ideally be butcher
ed off the ground, so the kit comes with its own belt and holsters to enable the hunter to work easily on the hanging carcass.
With the possible exception of a length of rope for hanging, this kit contains everything needed to completely butcher a large animal down to manageable cuts, hundreds of miles from the nearest kitchen.
CHAINMAIL GLOVE
BLADE LENGTH: N/A
OVERALL LENGTH: 252MM
WEIGHT: 212G
MANUFACTURED BY: JINHUA PREASY MACHINERY CO.
MATERIALS: STAINLESS STEEL, NYLON
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: CHINA
USES: PROTECTING THE HAND DURING COMMERCIAL CUTTING OPERATIONS AND OYSTER SHUCKING, IMPROVING GRIP IN SEAM BUTCHERY
OK, I KNOW, it’s not strictly a knife but the chainmail glove is becoming a more and more important part of the butcher’s kit for an intriguing reason.
Originally, the chainmail glove was used by commercial butchers and fishmongers as protection for the hand not holding the knife – in a long day of dealing with slippery carcasses, it was good to have something on the opposite hand to protect against cuts and this vaguely medieval technology was just right for the job.* (These days there are excellent cut-proof gloves knitted from Kevlar fibres that do this job just as well with less weight.)
The mail glove, though, is gaining popularity as a tool for ‘seam’ butchery; the style in which individual muscles are separated from the carcass and butchered individually into more homogenous cuts. The technique involves getting a solid grip on the slippery meat and, without the use of the knife, pulling the muscle free. The mail glove is perfect for this. It fits on either hand, affords superb grip, it’s well ventilated and, at the end of the day, can be run through the dishwasher.
Both Kevlar and mail gloves are available online for just a few pounds and are definitely worth keeping in your roll, just in case.
* The chainmail glove is also an incredibly wise investment if you’re planning to open your own oysters. It improves the grip on the shell and will almost certainly save you from disheartening amounts of blood loss.
OYSTER KNIVES
BLADE LENGTH: 63MM
OVERALL LENGTH: 160MM
WEIGHT: 35G
MANUFACTURED BY: LE ROI DE LA COUPE
MATERIALS: STAINLESS STEEL, WOOD, THERMOPLASTIC
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: FRANCE
USE: SHUCKING OYSTERS
UNIQUELY AMONG THE ANIMALS WE EAT, oysters are alive when they come to the table. They survive on land by sealing into themselves a quantity of seawater – kind of a reverse aqualung. Inside the shell they comprise a healthy deposit of (delicious) fat and wiry (delicious) muscle, which they use to keep the shell closed and watertight with the sort of tenacity that us predators can only admire.
With no teeth, claws, venom or ability to breathe fire, oysters are entirely peaceful creatures who, nonetheless, put more humans in hospital every year than the most rampant of raptors. Prising open the shell and nicking the muscle so we can get to the flesh involves such a lethal combination of sharp edge and leverage that most of us who care to tangle with the creatures will have stabbed ourselves in the hand several times.
Oyster knives come in a variety of shapes. One popular style has a short, thick, heart-shaped blade and a substantial circular guard around the hilt, both of which are designed to stop the knife going ‘through’ the shell and damaging either the oyster flesh or the ball of your thumb. It’s a good tool (when combined with a chainmail glove) but lacking in subtlety. Most experienced oyster fanciers and professional shuckers use a thinner knife which, once you’ve practised on a few dozen, can be slid easily into the right weak spot on the shell perimeter and is sharp enough to sever the muscle easily. You can, as generations of salty sons of the sea have done, do a lovely job with a simple penknife but do be sure it has a locking blade or it will close on your fingers and you’ll end up sharing your oysters with a nice doctor at A&E.
This type, common all over France is, as you can see from the photograph, simple in design and quite cheaply made. Even when wielded by experienced hands it will occasionally hit a tough oyster and the end will snap off, so a replacement can’t cost too much.
CHEESE KNIVES
BLADE LENGTH: VARIOUS
OVERALL LENGTH: VARIOUS
WEIGHT: VARIOUS
MANUFACTURED BY: ROCKINGHAM FORGE
(PARMESAN KNIFE FAMA)
MATERIALS: 18/10 STAINLESS STEEL, WOOD PRESSURE-TREATED WITH EPOXY
COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN: ENGLAND AND ITALY
USES: CUTTING AND SERVING CHEESES
WE ARE STRANGELY CONFLICTED by knives that must be on the table as we dine. Carving knives are kept on the sideboard, sharp knives stay in the kitchen and, with the exception of steak knives, we reserve the most inoffensive shapes for the table.
It’s easy to see then how the cheese knife evolved. One can imagine a farm worker lopping off a lump of Caerphilly and offering it to a mate on the point of his clasp knife, but such behaviour wouldn’t cut it at the more genteel tables. Even elegant table knives with natty little fork arrangements built into the tip specifically for forking could be seen to be, well, maybe just a little ‘stabby’. And so we see the development of a politely upswept tip. Nobody could take umbrage at the cheese knife, it even adds a little class, and so we see it gracing tables throughout the gadget-obsessed glory years of the 1950s.
As we become more adventurous in our after-dinner cheese choices though, a problem rears its head – nothing could be less genteel than having to use fingers to prize off a recalcitrant wedge of brie adhering to the blade. Out of this bitter adversity the holey, purpose-designed ‘soft cheese knife’ is born.
It is now possible to purchase whole sets of ‘cheese knives’ including items such as this mimsy little chopper, for example, which always come in a lovely box printed with the increasingly tortured rationale behind each different blade shape.
The Parmesan knife, though, is not so lacking in rigour. Tough Parmesan should be cracked into pieces rather than cut, the better to display its gorgeous texture and jewelled distribution of granular salts. This rugged little knife can be jammed into the surface and leverage applied to the knob-like handle until a slab sheers off with a satisfying crack.
ON MENDING AND MODDING
ONE OF MY FAVOURITE MOVIE QUOTES comes from the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Explaining his knackered condition to ex-lover Marion Ravenwood, Indy rumbles, ‘It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage.’
Like a lot of clapped-out older blokes, I love the idea that, worn with pride, wear and damage equate with character and, like the scars and tattoos on a human body, the repairs and modifications we make to a knife add to its charisma.
Perhaps the simplest modification many chefs make to their knives is to personalise or name them. You can burn an initial into a plastic handle using a heated needle or skewer or mark it with nail polish (see the lovely fading initials of Henry Harris on the handle of the Sabatier). On older wooden knives, like Nat Gilpin’s you can easily gouge an identifying mark using another blade. Many knife shops will now engrave a blade with your name, though this somehow doesn’t feel quite as rugged and adventurous as Dr Jones.
When knives get damaged they can often be repaired in a way that extends their life and enhances their intrigue. In the picture opposite you’ll see a phenolic handle that has cracked and split after a kindly soul put it through a hot cycle in the dishwasher. After the owner had cooled down, he filled
the cracks with Fymo (an air-drying modelling compound available from art shops), which, as long as nobody puts it through the dishwasher again, will give years more use.
The beautiful carbon-steel hankotsu pictured was carelessly dropped on to a stone floor and the tip snapped off. Half an hour or so with a coarse sharpening stone has reshaped the damaged tip to the owner’s specification, making it both useful and pleasingly unique.
Some modifications are less about repair than about making the knife more pleasant to use. Long use of a non-bolstered knife, particularly with wet hands, can cause blisters on the second joint of the forefinger where it hits the back of the blade. This cai dao has been wrapped with string for a long shift of fish filleting.
‘Sugru’ is a silicone-based material that can be moulded by hand and dries to a tough, almost rubber-like finish. Product designers, hackers and geeks love it and it can usually be found ‘modding’ drones, espresso machines, racing bike gear levers or other hipster gadgets. It was only a matter of time before someone discovered how great it is for creating a high-tech version of the time-honoured string modification.
Repairing or modding a knife is like nursing a much-loved pet through illness or injury. You’re delighted to get it back, even if it looks a bit lopsided, and somehow, you love it even more.
MUSHROOM KNIFE
(OPINEL)
BLADE LENGTH: 70MM
OVERALL LENGTH: 205MM