This is a topic that comes up often amongst meat rabbit growers and people butchering and processing rabbit meat:
What knives or knife is best for butchering rabbits?
Over the last few years, we have tried out a few different designs. We’ve watched and observed to see what other people are using and picked up on some good tips.
Here’s what we’ve learned and what we prefer to use when processing and butchering meat rabbits.
Jump to:
- What We Look For in Knives for Processing and Butchering Meat Rabbits
- Our Top Choices in Knives for Harvesting and Butchering Meat Rabbits
- Victorinox Swiss Classic Shaping Knife
- Victorinox 5 Inch Curved Semi Stiff Boning Knife
- Victorinox 4 Inch Rabbit Knife
- Other Knives We’ve Used and What We Think of Them
- Kitchen Paring Knives
- Dexter Russell 2 ½ Inch Wide Clip Point Knife
- LEM Caping Knife
- Ruko Small Hunting Knife and Sheath
- Remington Set of Three Hunting/Skinning Knives with Sheath
- Other Tools and Supplies You’ll Need
- Good Knives Make Faster, Easier Work of Harvesting Meat Rabbits
- To sum it up, here’s what I’d buy:
What We Look For in Knives for Processing and Butchering Meat Rabbits
After harvesting our fair share and watching and learning what others are using, there are some key features we look for in a rabbit butchering knife:
- Good reputation for quality
- Good edge that can be sharpened again and again
- Fine point to pierce hides
- Curved blade back that keeps the point away from the intestines and organs, reducing cuts and contamination
- Short blade, under 3 inches long
- Small to medium size that is maneuverable and manageable when working around the different points of the rabbit
- Easily cleaned and sanitized
Our Top Choices in Knives for Harvesting and Butchering Meat Rabbits
It took a lot of searching to find just the right knives, but through trial, error, and the internet, we’ve landed upon some favroties, which we’re happy to share and recommend.
They are as follows:
Victorinox Swiss Classic Shaping Knife
This is the knife that we use for dressing, skinning, and gutting. It’s a small but mighty knife, good for the overall job, and all we really use from start to finish of the dressing and eviscerating process.
What drew us to this knife is its design. It is short and easy to use, even in small and tight spaces. It has a sharp point that can get through the hide in all the necessary places. And most importantly to us, it has a curved back to the blade that keeps the point away from the internal organs and intestines.
This knife slides easily down the midsection without much chance of cutting into something that will contaminate the meat (like the urinary or digestive tracts).
This knife is from Victorinox, a reputable company with a long history and one known to be used and recommended by professional butchers. (Victorinox is the maker of the original Swiss Army Knife.)
Notable features:
- Small and maneuverable
- Stainless steel blade (not forged)
- 2.5-inch blade
- Lightweight
- Sharp blade
- Fine point
- Curved back lets you slide through hides and belly without piercing guts, intestines, and organs
- Low price
- A company known for quality, and their knives are known for longevity
- Affordably priced
There are two up-scale versions of this knife.
One runs around $25 (USD) from Victorinox. It is the same basic knife as the plastic-handled version that we have, but it has a wooden handle. The problem with this knife is that I can never find it in stock!
The second is a slightly longer knife with a wood handle called the Grand Maitre Shaping Knife. It has a forged stainless steel blade that is a full tang. The blade is three inches as opposed to two and a half. This is a much higher investment at around $100 USD (as of the writing of this article), but one that would also be expected to last a lifetime.
Now that we know we like the style and shape of this knife and have experienced the advantages of it, this upgraded version may be one we invest in. I do believe in investing in good quality knives, and this is one with the potential to last years and be able to keep a sharp edge.
The one drawback of the plastic Classic Shaping Knife is that we would like the blade to stay sharper and longer. The upgraded forged version should have and hold a better edge. That said, it has easily done as many as 20 rabbits before being sharpened.
Where to find the Victorinox Swiss Classic Shaping Knife:
Victorinox 5 Inch Curved Semi Stiff Boning Knife
We do not use this knife for dressing and gutting. It is the knife we use for boning and cutting up the meat (something I find well worth the time to do, as it means the meat is more convenient and easier to use on a regular basis).
Victorinox has simply proven, time and again, to be a good knife maker with quality products at an affordable price. I also find them to be more available and more accessible. This is part of the reason that our main knives all ended up coming from Victorinox.
The overall reason, though, is that Victorinox has the right size and shape for what we want for butchering meat rabbits.
We own a few boning knives, but this one in particular has shown to be the right combination of size and maneuverability when butchering, cutting, boning, and parting out whole rabbits.
Notable features:
- 5-inch blade
- Stainless steel blade
- High carbon stainless steel
- Stiff yet flexible blade handles all boning maneuvers
- Fine point for piercing and getting into small areas
- Wider blade end for longer cuts
- Affordably priced
- Professional quality
- Cleanable Fibrox handle
Where to find the Victorinox 5 Inch Curved Semi Stiff Boning Knife
Victorinox 4 Inch Rabbit Knife
Though we prefer a curved and shorter blade for processing, if you wanted one good all-around knife that could handle both processing and deboning, this would be a good choice. We use it primarily for boning.
Notable features:
- Designed for processing and field dressing rabbits
- Stainless steel blade
- 4-inch blade
- Good handle grip
- Nice size
- A quality blade that can handle resharpening
- Designed to last for years
This is sold and titled by Victorinox as the “Rabbit” knife for slaughtering and processing. It has good reviews from many people, and there are a lot of people who like this knife for processing. Victorinox is a good company with quality products, one that I know professional butchers rely on (because I’ve worked alongside some great ones, and they like Dexter and Victorinox knives, among others).
This knife doesn’t have quite the blade shape we want for processing, but the style may suit you. We use this as a boning knife, usually in the kitchen when we’re boning out and breaking down carcasses. It’s a good knife to get around bones and smaller spaces where you might want something shorter than a five or six-inch boning knife (five and six inches being a more standard-length blade for a boning knife).
Truth be told, even when I’m boning, I find the five-inch knife handles it all, but this knife does see some use in my kitchen. It is worth mentioning because it is a good knife that will do the job, and if you only want one knife to do it all, this is probably the one.
Where to find the Victorinox 4 Inch Rabbit Knife:
Other Knives We’ve Used and What We Think of Them
We’ve gone through several different knives in our quest to find the best. Our favorites are those listed above, but there are others that we have used and still do sometimes use. Sometimes, we have helpers or butchers “in training,” and some of them prefer some of these other knives.
Everyone has their own preferred style of knife, so I’ll list these here for your consideration, too.
Kitchen Paring Knives
Traditional kitchen paring knives are what Alyssa at BHA Rabbitry uses in her online meat rabbit butchering course (which I highly recommend—her course answered a lot of questions and cleared up quite a bit of confusion!).
These are the plastic-handled paring knives most of us have or had in our kitchens and that you can find in almost any store that sells kitchen knives.
Some features:
- Inexpensive
- Widely available
- Can easily keep several on hand (affordably) to always have a fresh, sharp knife
- Small and maneuverable
- Short blade
- Decent blade point
- Cleanable
You can find these knives almost anywhere, but here’s a link:
Any upgraded version of the same basic design would be a good choice, too:
Dexter Russell 2 ½ Inch Wide Clip Point Knife
This knife is labeled as a tender/shoulder/trim knife. It costs around $20 USD, and we chose it because we were looking for a curved blade that can slide along the inside of the hide without piercing organs and intestines.
It’s a good knife, worthwhile, but it doesn’t have quite as fine a point as the Victorinox shaping knives, which is why we prefer them over this knife. However, it has been used for butchering and works well.
The blade is stronger than the Victorinox and more substantial (I could not find specifications in regards to forged versus stamped). I do feel Dexter Russell knives (at least in comparable price ranges) may be a bit better quality than Victorinox, but we just can’t find the features that we like so well in the Dexter line. At the end of the day, it probably comes down more to personal preference anyway, and the two companies make good knives.
This Clip Point Knife is in their Sani-Safe line, which means it is designed for non-slip safety and sanitary conditions, meeting commercial safety and sanitation standards (among other features).
One other note is that the handle is larger and fills the hand, which can be positive or negative depending on hand size (for my smaller hands, it’s a bit less maneuverable, but not bad, and men or people with larger hands might prefer it). The handles are designed to be non-slip and safer.
- Curved blade
- Dexter Russell quality
- High carbon steel blade
- Designed for safety and sanitation
- Professional quality
- Short blade with curved back
- Fuller non-slip handle
Find this and other quality Dexter knives* here:
There is a “poultry” version of this knife that looks to have a finer point, which may help overcome some of what wasn’t ideal for us with this knife, but it has a straight, not curved back (not a deal killer, but we prefer that nice, curved blade).
*I also purchased Dexter paring knives to try. The blade has a sort of semi-serrated edge, and we prefer smooth blades, so they haven't ended up seeing use as rabbit butchering knives. They are good quality and sturdier than the paring knives mentioned above.
LEM Caping Knife
I bought this knife online when I was ordering knives, but as it turns out, it is a bit too large for what we like when processing and butchering rabbits. The handle is quite large, which makes it a bit cumbersome for backyard meat rabbit butchering.
This knife is useful for boning, but really, I think of this knife more as something for field dressing a variety of wild animals. For hunters, it would be nice and on the smaller side but still rugged enough to do the job well.
Features:
- Less than 9 inches long total length
- Blade 2 ¾ inches long
- Full tang
- Full–sized handle
- Good blade point, but not as fine a point as others listed
You can buy this knife directly from LEM:
Ruko Small Hunting Knife and Sheath
When my husband sent me out shopping for a good quality, fine-pointed knife for skinning meat rabbits, this is what I came back with. He’s been very happy with this knife, especially for its fine point.
It was only replaced by the Victorinox because they have that protective-style curved bird beak blade. Otherwise, this is a winner, too.
- 7 inches long
- Stainless steel blade
- Full tang
- 3 ¼ inch blade
- Nice, fine point
This knife can be hard to find. I happened across it, but I did find it at at least one outfitter online:
Remington Set of Three Hunting/Skinning Knives with Sheath
This is a set of three stainless steel knives that we bought years ago. We did use them when we first started harvesting our meat rabbits. They work decently and do the job, but we wanted something with a finer point.
They are good all-around knives to have for backyard butchering of various animals.
Features:
- Set of three
- All stainless steel
- Small and maneuverable
I’ve seen this same set sold under different brand names. Ours happens to be Remington, but you’ll find this same set, which I assume to be mass-produced (they are made in China), under other names. You can find the set here:
Other Tools and Supplies You’ll Need
In addition to some good knives that work well for you, you will also need a good sharpening set and a honing steel to keep a clean edge on your knives as you work.
I also spent a little money on a magnetic strip to store knives at the ready in the kitchen for when I’m boning and cutting and a chef’s cutlery carrier to store processing knives when not in use. These maintain my knife edges and my sanity, so I don’t have to chase the household away from using my favorite rabbit butchering knives for cutting loaves of bread!
Here are a few links to other tools and accessories I’ve found useful:
- Sharpening Whetstone
- Lansky Clamp-Style Deluxe Knife Sharpening Set
- Honing Steel
- Chef’s Knife Cutlery Storage Bag (with knife point protectors)
- Magnetic Wall Knife Holder
Good Knives Make Faster, Easier Work of Harvesting Meat Rabbits
It is absolutely essential that you find good knives that are comfortable and maneuverable for you and that have and hold a good, sharp edge throughout the whole processing day. This is what makes the fastest, cleanest job of it.
But just as importantly, good, sharp knives are also safe knives.
After having been through several styles and brands, I can recommend those that I’ve listed here.
To sum it up, here’s what I’d buy:
We’ve talked about a lot of the different knives we’ve trialed, but to sum it up, here is what I would recommend as a solid set for any backyard meat rabbit raiser:
- Victorinox Shaping Knife for Skinning and Eviscerating**
- Five-Inch Victorinox Boning Knife
- Victorinox Four-Inch Rabbit Knife (Optional – My Choice if you want one overall knife or a second boning knife option)
- Honing Steel
- Whetstone
**For the sake of ease of shopping all in one place, these last links are all for shopping on Amazon. Victorinox knives are not always available through the Victorinox site, even when other sellers have them, and this is the one place that has all of these items in stock. However, for those that are available from their website, the price may be better.
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