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!

Getting the knives sharp

It is important to have a sharp knife, especially when you are butchering chickens.  Odd as it seems, a sharp knife is safer than a dull one since a dull one requires pressure to cut.  That pressure can cause slippage, which can be disastrous.  We'll be butchering 47 chickens tomorrow and cutting up chicken requires a very sharp knife.  My knives need sharpening.

So I use a whetstone, some honing oil and a sharpening steel to do the job.  You can see that this particular whetstone has a coarse side and a fine side.  I have several Chicago Cutlery knives that we've found are up to the task of cutting up chickens tomorrow.  I lay it all out on a towel since the grit from the stone can make a mess and I don't want to ruin the carpet.  The towel serves another purpose - it keeps the stone from slipping.

Knives, whetstone, honing oil and a steel

First I put a drop of honing oil on the coarse side of the stone.  The oil acts as lubrication.
  

Putting a drop of oil on the whetstone.

With the non-dominant hand on the blade and the dominant hand on the handle, I hold the blade at a 20 degree angle and with moderate pressure, I push it forward covering the entire length of the blade from tip to base.  Repeat this process 10 times and then flip the knife open and do the same thing on the other side.


Pushing the blade across the oiled whetstone while holding a 20 degree angle

Now we flip the whetstone over to the fine side and repeat the same process as with the coarse side above.


A drop of honing oil on the fine side of the whetstone

In similar fashion as explained above, while holding the knife at a 20 degree angle, I push the knife forward with moderate pressure from tip to base.  I do this 10 times and then flip the knife over and do the same with the other side. 

Further sharpening on the fine side of the whetstone

Finally, I finish the process using a sharpening steel.  Sharpening a knife using a whetstone grinds away tiny bits of the knife blade and it leaves the blade's edge rough and uneven.  The sharpening steel then smooths out the blade's edge.  I'll use the steel from time to time tomorrow in order to keep the blade sharp while butchering chickens as I notice that the blade is dulling.  It is important to keep the knives sharpened at all times.

Finishing up with a sharpening steel

Knife sharpening takes time and must be done time after time when cutting chickens since you're cutting through bone.  This takes its toll on your knife.  A sharp knife is a safe knife and hopefully will make our job easier tomorrow morning.