I get 1-3 deer a year skinned and quartered from a co-worker but I do all the rest of the cutting. I'm currently using a hand-made Nesmuck-style knife, but either my technique is poor or this style knife doesn't live up to its hype. It takes me 4-5 hours to process a deer and the end results are pretty hacked up.

Anyone have a knife they really like for butchering deer? Is it possible that my knife is too sharp?

-Blast

Blast,

I came across this article, with videos, a week or so ago. This guy uses a fillet knife. You sound like you get your deer later in the process but perhaps this will give you some ideas. Hope it helps.

Bill

A Neesmuck knife is desinged for skinning I believe.A different process entirely.I would get an "Old Hickery" butcher's knife.That style of blade was purpose specific.My father was a butcher for a while and used one.He also had a huge knife made from a cross cut saw blade W/ 16 inch blade.He only used carbon steel blades and would touch up on a butchers steel.Hope this helps.....

BOATMAN
John

Is there such a thing as too sharp? Which Nesmuk do you have? D2 steel can be sharp but toothy and will sometimes tear rather that cut cleanly.

It sounds to me like your Nesmuck is the wrong knife for the job, not a sharpness issue.

Outdoor wilderness knives have their place as do cleavers and fillet knives designed for kitchen duty. Why not try a simple Butcher knife? Or maybe one of the many Chefs knives available. A Santoku is another kitchen knife that works well slicing.

That's the conclusion I've come to. The Nesumk has it's place at the beginning of the process but by the time I get the quartered carcass a different blade-shape would probably serve me better.

The knife was made a knife-maker friend of mine. Judging from the scales on the blade it looks like he he forged the blade from an "Old Hickory" style knife. I started the butchering process with it absolutely razor-sharp and steeled it every 10 minutes or so throughout the job. It seemed like it just slid over the meat and membranes rather than cutting through them.

-Blast

Here....Has a Deer...





Here Has one very suspicious of what Im doing.




Right Click and view image for a lil bigger.

i think Russ may have the right idea,just a simple butcher knife.
when we were cutting up road kill to toss to the wolves at a science study center here in Minnesota i asked one of the staff what sort of knife he used daily and it was just a plain butcher knife.i have a good book on the tools of the fur trade era by Carl Russell,1968,and it seems when you look past all the big fighting knives and general camp knives what people were really using on farms and homesteads was the Green River butchering knife with a bit of a up swept blade.on a personal basis i have used a Helle with a short blade and a big grip,sorry can't think of the name right now,on deer along with a Mora 2000.the Mora cut thru the meat with no effort and the Helle was good in the tight spots.
..i just went to Ragweed to check on the name of that Helle,it's a Nying..also why not get one of those reindeer butchering knives he has---that will solve your problem--

For meat cutting many people like a toothier edge. A 320 grit belt followed by a stropping on a leather belt doped with CrO will do the trick.

My go-to for butchering pig (we get one every year from my cousin's farm) is a very plain Mora. I touch it up with a very simple carbide sharpener he keeps on the table as we're working.

I help bone out a deer or two every fall. Usually, people start out with their fat, clumsy hunting knives ... and then rapidly switch over to my pail full of second-hand specials: Mora, Henckels, Victorinox, and Old Hickory.

There is a reason why the "butcher" and "green river skinner" blade patterns are universal items. That said, I'm not convinced that pattern is the critical issue.

First, a thin blade is better (simply less resistance). You need a cutter for this job, not a prybar.

Second, as noted by others, a "toothier" edge is actually better for peeling off membrane, chewing around cartilage and bone etc. A blade can indeed be too sharp IMO, both for skinning and for processing. I use a medium diamond or a well-worn garden stone for this type of edge, maintained with a good quality steel (I pick up Henckels steels for a buck or two at garage sales; and I have a Norton garden stone that is now 30 years old and starting to break in rather nicely).

I like the idea of a longish, semi-flexible knife for boning out an animal. There are purpose-built boning knives, but I think you can get a better quality semi-flexible filleting knife for a song and it would work wonderfully.

I've been thinking of getting a set like http://www.buckknives.com/index.cfm?event=product.detail&productID=3954

Anyone ever tried it?

I've always just borrowed a thin filet knife my parents use when butchering cattle.

Perhaps it would be helpful to consider French "cut and seam" butchering techniques. This set of techniques applies to any animal and uses a relatively small set of butcher tools.

LOL! I did a google search on "cut and seam butchering" and the first link it gave me was your post, dweste. Time to search deeper.

-Blast

I have seen a demo live and a few online references and articles. Supposedly the method drastically reduces the need for major chopping or cutting by separating major muscle groups along their natural separations or "seams" [the membranes or bursa that allow muscle groups to contract or relax and "slide" by other muscles] and then just cutting their attachments - typically at joints, plus boning and harvesting culinary quality fat and organ meats as you go.

The result is a relatively clean, disarticulated skeleton and clean meat separated into the various muscle groups ready to be cooked or stored [eacjh of which the French insist do best cooked in separate ways!]. Pretty fast and impressive to watch an expert "unzip" an animal like a pig.

Aside from a stout, relatively short, and wickedly sharp boning blade, as I recall the other tools used were a fairly flexible, longer, narrow bladed knife for some deboning, and a t-handled loop of what I assume was braided and teflon-coated stainless wire was used to loop over bones such as ribs and then pulled to along the bone to separate the meat [bone].

The resulting muscle meats were then rolled and tied for roasts, sliced across the grain to create steaks [including butterflying some for uniform thickness], ground for various uses including sausage, etcetera.

Bottom line: how you butcher probably determines which tools will work best.