Dexter-Russell Traditional 8-inch Wide Boning Knife, Carbon Steel (1378)

At 8 inches, the 1378 is the longest of Dexter-Russell’s Traditional wide boning knives and the one for primals. It handles boning a whole beef chuck, taking a ham off the bone or breaking a deer hindquarter into roasts, where a shorter blade means more strokes and more ragged seams.

Dexter-Russell credits the carbon blade with real sharpness and an edge that is easy to restore, and the long blade gives the leverage to follow a seam the full length of a large muscle. The riveted wood handle is the classic Traditional build that meat cutters have used for decades. Carbon steel needs to be dried promptly and will develop a gray patina, a trade many meat cutters accept for the way it sharpens.

8-inch or Shorter?

For smaller game and pork, the 7-inch 1377 or 6-inch 1376 gives more control. A long Sani-Safe 10-inch Scimitar is the better tool for slicing boneless primals into steaks.