A Sharp Knife Is Essential

“If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe.” – Abraham Lincoln.

That is a doggone good quote about preparing!  I assume the same logic holds with knives.  As we get ready for chicken butchering, I always take time the night before to ensure that our arsenal of butcher knives are very sharp.  A dull knife is dangerous as it requires more effort to cut through muscle, cartilage and bone.  A dull knife makes your job much harder and will tire you out faster due to that additional effort expended.  Sharpening my knives always makes me think about my grandfather.  He kept a pocketknife in his pocket and always kept it sharp.  He had a (regular house) brick in the bed of his truck that he'd use in place of a whetstone.  He would spit on the brick and sharpen his knife that way.  It really worked.  He always had a sharp knife.

We use Chicago Cutlery knives.  It is a quality knife with rigid construction, wood handles, and they tend to keep a good edge.  If you take care of them, they'll last a lifetime.  They are affordable, too.  I have a smallish Rubbermaid container that I keep an old towel, a piece of some old blue jeans, my whetstones and a bottle of honing oil.  I get that container down and unroll the towel on the counter.

A couple or three drops of honing oil on both whetstones, and we're ready to go.  I begin to run the knife against the whetstone with the coarsest texture at a gentle angle.  I do that motion for a while and then switch to the other side of the knife.  Then I switch to the finer texture whetstone and repeat the process.  After I've done that for a while, I rub my thumb (carefully) on the knife's edge.  If it feels sharp, I test it on the hair on my arm.  

If it is sharp to my liking, I then use the sharpening steel to smooth out any rough edges.  That knife is then ready for the chickens.  I repeat for all the other knives.

Once done, we are ready.  The knives will get a lot of use.  The small knife is used to cut the neck so that the bird bleeds out.  That involves cutting through some feathers.  The other knife is used to cut the feet off as well as eviscerate the bird.  I'll keep the sharpening steel with me during that process to keep it sharp.

Once that is done, I know we still will be cutting up the chickens into parts (2 breasts, 2 wings, 2 drumsticks, 2 thighs, and the neck and back and ribs.  That involves a lot of heavy duty cutting so the knives must be extra sharp.  I'll re-sharpen them so they are up to the task.  Tomorrow, we butcher.  We'll show you the whole process!