The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Buffy the eggs layer on October 07, 2015, 09:42:11 am

Title: Which butchery knives please?
Post by: Buffy the eggs layer on October 07, 2015, 09:42:11 am
Hi,


     I am having my first stab at making some sausage using some saddleback pork that my sister fattened.


     I have been looking for some suitable butchery knives and wondered if anyone could recommend a good starter set. I dont need to bone the cuts that I have at the moment but I would also be interested in boning knives and saws etc for my lamb.


   This is probably your department Clansman  :)
Title: Re: Which butchery knives please?
Post by: Andrew on October 07, 2015, 12:11:56 pm
 I have always used victorinox knives both commercially as a butcher for 20 odd years and now for our own sheep, pigs and poultry. I would suggest that you buy a boning knive , a 10 inch steak knive and a 17.5 inch saw.
I noticed that  www.scobiesdirect.com (http://www.scobiesdirect.com) sells them at a reasonable price.
Title: Re: Which butchery knives please?
Post by: SophieYorkshire on October 07, 2015, 12:51:35 pm
I have always used victorinox knives both commercially as a butcher for 20 odd years and now for our own sheep, pigs and poultry. I would suggest that you buy a boning knive , a 10 inch steak knive and a 17.5 inch saw.
I noticed that  www.scobiesdirect.com (http://www.scobiesdirect.com) sells them at a reasonable price.

Got ours from Scobies - they're great and well priced. Dont touch the sausage flavourings from there though - theyre rotten!
Title: Re: Which butchery knives please?
Post by: Caroline1 on October 07, 2015, 01:46:56 pm
Those were the 3 knifes/saw that my butcher recommended as well and said they use: http://www.nisbets.co.uk/ (http://www.nisbets.co.uk/)

I haven't checked it out yet, but need to buy some myself.
Title: Re: Which butchery knives please?
Post by: hughesy on October 07, 2015, 02:57:14 pm
I have always used victorinox knives both commercially as a butcher for 20 odd years and now for our own sheep, pigs and poultry. I would suggest that you buy a boning knive , a 10 inch steak knive and a 17.5 inch saw.
I noticed that  www.scobiesdirect.com (http://www.scobiesdirect.com) sells them at a reasonable price.
That would be all you really need. You don't need a cleaver if you've got a saw. Victorinox or F.Dick are top quality knives. There are loads of places online but Scobies, Nisbets and Weschenfelder are good places to start.
Title: Re: Which butchery knives please?
Post by: Buffy the eggs layer on October 07, 2015, 04:46:09 pm
Thanks Andrew,


  I didnt know victorinox still existed. Thanks all for the suppliers recommendations everyone.


I bought a sausage kit from amazon for my first attempt as the bewildering array of professional supplies left me a bit overwhelmed.


It contains 3 types of flavorings so I can see how I get on. I tried a few different sausages from local farm shops recently to check out the competition. They really were disappointing and one brand had a piece of gristle the size of a molar! The "yorkshire" flavour had more mace in it than you could shake a sausage at. Urgh!


The meat in all of them was nondescript and the colour was uninspiring. All good news for me cause even as a beginner I couldn't do much worse.


I have a Bowman mincer / sausage maker, anything else that I havent thought of?
Title: Re: Which butchery knives please?
Post by: Caroline1 on October 07, 2015, 05:03:13 pm
Erm, I couldn't find Bowman Mincer online?

I did my first batch of sausage on Sunday, I bought a second hand mincer from a butchers so it was a decent and quick one and just used a manual sausage stuffer. The pork was obviously mine and the rest was from Weschenfelder, I tried the Farmhouse seasoning (thought I would try the packs before being adventurous and making my own).

They were AMAZING!!!  The only mistake I made was not soaking the casings long enough so they were a little tough, but I didn't care  :excited:

Good luck with yours  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Which butchery knives please?
Post by: Buffy the eggs layer on October 07, 2015, 07:21:21 pm
Oh well done Caroline!


  my mincer is a German one Bomann. I got it from a smallholder who never used it. I used it to mince some lamb a few weeks ago but this will be my first bangers!


Do I need something to sharpen the knives?
Title: Re: Which butchery knives please?
Post by: wayfarer on October 07, 2015, 08:14:49 pm
I have found that getting as small a saw as possible works much better for me as I am quite small.  The men who use the larger saws when I have done butchery days as a group managed fine but I really struggled wit the extra weight.

Title: Re: Which butchery knives please?
Post by: Buffy the eggs layer on October 07, 2015, 08:40:28 pm
Yeah I was just thinking that when I looked at the boning knives on the web site. I need ladies sized kit  ;D
Title: Re: Which butchery knives please?
Post by: wayfarer on October 07, 2015, 08:46:52 pm
I have found that a 15cm flexible boning knife and a  20cm steak knife both from Victorinox and a c15" saw by Bargoin have worked for me.  I can't remember where my OH got them from for me last Christmas but I do remember having to really hunt around for a small saw.