Another nakiri question

Anyone ever use a nakiri as a poultry knife...breaking down raw whole chickens?
The reason that I ask is that I have a lefty bias nakiri but I'm right handed.
While stewing over this (no pun intended) a great deal on a teruyasu fujiwara
nashiji came my way. I tried it and love it. We keep a steady supply of minced
up produce and the TF, in tandem with a guyto for coarse prep, works wonders.
Now, the lefty feels neglected-- Says, sell me or find another way to use me. Lefty
is all carbon white number one, soft enough to take some re-shaping. However,
I don't want to dedicate an entire coarse grit brick to the job, nor do my hands need
to be punished. That said, I'm not all that happy with my current poultry knife. It's
a re-purposed 1950's gerber slicing knife. I've seen cleavers used for taking apart
a chicken, so why not a nakiri..which as is pretty thick behind the edge.

In the picture of the choil, the one on the left is the all carbon nakiri and the one
on the right is the TF nakiri.

 

Nakiri is designed for vegetables , it may seem thick but it will chip when you break down while chicken , I wouldn't recommend it. You may want to look for honesuki or cck if you want a cleaver

 

chefcomesback,
That may be all I need to know. The risk of chipping it was my thought, as well. I have a line
on a possible honesuki which really seems shaped much like the gerber. I sliced a sweet potatoe
with the nakiri in question and sure did appreciate its mid range heft. So, maybe a cleaver. Never had
a cleaver in my hand.

 

What I mean with cleaver is a Chinese cleaver ,you can find something similar to your nakiri but only little
bigger, there are lot of guys here who use them on daily basis ,they may tell you which brand or their model to look for

 

With the right technique you can break down whole chickens with anything from a paring knife to a monster gyuto. When you watch a video of Martin Yan breaking down a chicken in eighteen seconds, he's cutting it at the joints, and not cutting any bones. Use that technique, and that neglected nakiri will do just fine.



You can do the same thing with a honesuki, just remember that most of them are not made to cut through bones.



However, if your technique includes cutting through bones, like the ribs, then your best bet is a Western deba:

 

Rick,
I've seen Martin with his cleaver and that's what gave me the thought that maybe
the nakiri had a place to help out. I'm still searching for a reliable technique..most definitely joint cuts,
except for the back bone which I've just given in to using kitchen shears. Martin is so fast that it's pretty hard to learn from him except for the part that it's good to relax the chicken. I wobble the joints a lot as a way of opening the space. As for the nakiri, I did make an offer to a left handed individual. I'm fickle about this knife. The more I work it, the more I will bond for better or worse. Good comments for the varied knives. And the videos are fantastic for the non cleaver knives. Nothing like repetition. Great contrast in techniques. Maybe I'll show a picture of the gerber and ask if I'm trying to put a square peg in a round hole with this application.
Bill

 

Rick (Pen T) -

That's a great compilation of videos. I'm pretty sure the honesuki Rick (theory) is using in the middle video is a Tojiro DP. In fact, it was his comments on the other KKF that inspired me to switch to that knife vs. my old flexible boning knife.

 

NMaxy,
Your case may be similar to my own. I looked at a choil shot of the Tojior DP.
Thicker steel from top to bottom....than the Gerber which qualifies as being
flexible. As for the nakiri in question, I wonder if there is an equivalence behind
the edge.

If I was to take a digital calibrator what would be the dimensions behind
the edge for the Tojiro or the equivalent? Care to estimate if the above choil shot
of the nakiri on the left is similar?


Here are choil and spine shots of the Gerber...not that anyone should really care. I just like seeing old
stuff of any quality get used.