While MKC knives are versatile and adapt to any situation, our lineup has room for more purpose-driven tools, like butcher knives built to process game.
That’s where our collaboration with the Bearded Butchers comes in.
You’ve learned about our friends Seth and Scott Perkins, aka the Bearded Butchers, on our website before. They’re second-generation butchers, social media stars, and homesteading advocates. I’m excited to have created a blade that represents their values — and the values of so many MKC owners.
From Field to Feast: The Story Behind the Boning Butcher Knife
Processing is an integral part of the hunt. Whether you break down your entire carcass yourself or gut and go before sending it to a processor, our new Boning Butcher Knife helps you move from the field to the kitchen as smoothly as possible.
The Boning Butcher Knife is the ultimate butchery tool. It’s a naked blade that doesn’t have the bells and whistles many of our knives do, and that’s intentional.
The Bearded Butchers wanted to make a blade to use between the kill and the kitchen. Thus, the Boning Butcher’s sole purpose is breaking down and harvesting meat. That’s it.
The Boning Butcher is what we like to call a “shop knife.” It’s only categorized with our culinary blades because you wouldn’t typically bring it into the field. It’s meant to stay at your meat processing station.
The Bearded Butchers say cutting meat is a science and an art. The cleaner the cut, the more appetizing the meat will look when served. While achieving a clean cut stems from practice and education, having the best tool for the job is important, too.
Carving Perfection: The Art and Science of the Boning Butcher’s Design
The Boning Butcher’s upswept, almost half-moon shape helps it slice through meat, glide along bone, remove silver skin, and save delicate cuts of meat that might otherwise go to waste.
The Boning Butcher’s handle is equally purposeful. It’s thick and chunky — far more so than most MKC blades. The Bearded Butchers themselves gravitate toward chunky, grippable knives.
The handle is made of thick G10, an epoxy-bonded composite material, to combat fatigue and promote ergonomics. Scott and Seth spend hours each day cutting through large volumes of meat. That’s a far cry from a typical hunting knife, which rarely sees such heavy, continuous use.
The Anatomy of Excellence: Boning Butcher Knife Specs
The Boning Butcher Knife is a boning knife with a kickup at the tip. Thanks to that kickup, you can’t point the knife down while using it, and the tip can’t catch on meat and silver skin. This snagless shape allows the knife to move swiftly through the butchering process.
The Boning Butcher Knife is an “as-milled” knife. This means it has no special coating — no mirror finish, Cerakote, or Parkerization. Its intentionally visible grid lines showcase its high quality.
As with all good boning knives, the Boning Butcher Knife has a flexible blade that glides through muscle and over bone. It’s crafted from AEB-L steel, has a full tang, and is protected by a custom Kydex sheath.
And like all MKC knives, the Boning Butcher Knife is made right here in the USA.
Meet the Maestros: The Bearded Butchers’ Mission
The Bearded Butchers are on a mission to teach people how to process meat themselves.
These days, it’s so convenient to send your trophy to a meat processor that self-processing is becoming a lost art. The Bearded Butchers want to get back to basics and honor tradition.
As you might expect, the Bearded Butchers know carcasses up and down. They’ve mastered the gutless method out in the backwoods, complete carcass breakdowns in a shop setting, and every breakdown method in between.
One of my favorite things about the Bearded Butchers is that they avoid throwing parts of the animal away. I’ve watched them make racks of ribs out of rib cages, which I’d love to do one day myself. Their message is one of self-sufficiency, respect for nature, and frugality.
Want to learn how to get the most out of your meat harvests, too? Check out their videos on social media.
Cutting to the Chase: Why the Boning Butcher Knife Matters
Many hunters send their harvest to a butcher or processor, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But homesteading and self-sufficiency are back in style, and for those who want to participate, the Boning Butcher Knife makes it possible.
The Boning Butcher Knife represents a movement back to the basics: using as much meat as possible out of respect for yourself and the animals you take down.
by Josh Smith, Master Bladesmith and Founder of Montana Knife Company
