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See why.Flexible Boning Knives
A good boning knife can save you money at the meat counter. Which is best?
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What You Need To Know
A chef's knife and a paring knife are all you need for most cutting jobs in the kitchen. But a boning knife can make it easier to perform certain tasks, as its thin, narrow, razor-like blade is ideal for getting in between joints and for carving around larger bones. Since bone-in meat is typically cheaper than boned meat, this can translate into money saved at the supermarket. And because we often use a boning knife to prepare expensive cuts—removing the silverskin from a beef tenderloin or frenching a rack of lamb—it can also help protect your investment, hewing closely to the valuable meat and allowing you to trim away only what you don't want, with little or no waste.
Boning knives come in different lengths and levels of flexibility: stiff, semistiff, semiflexible, and flexible. Each type and size excels at different tasks, but a 6-inch flexible boning knife is the most versatile option for those we most often perform at home, such as removing bones from smaller cuts of meat and poultry. We wanted to know if our longtime favorite, the Victorinox Swiss Army Fibrox Pro 6” Flexible Boning Knife, still held up to the competition. We pitted it against five other flexible boning knives priced from about $20.00 to about $120.00, each with a blade roughly 6 inches long.
We're pleased to report that you can't go wrong with any of the knives in our lineup. All did a serviceable job of boning chicken breasts, trimming tenderloins, and removing the bones from cooked pork shoulder roasts. But a few factors made some models slightly easier and more enjoyable to use.
Slim and Sharp
The first and most important characteristic: sharpness. Because the blade of a boning knife is comparatively light, thin, and narrow, it can't use its heft to force food apart the way a chef's knife can. Instead, it relies almost entirely on the sharpness of its edge—particularly at the tip—to slice or make incisions. Some blades were sharper than others, effortlessly stripping away silverskin or scoring the fat cap on raw pork shoulders. We preferred models that had narrow edge angles of 14 or 15 degrees; one knife with an 18-degree edge angle felt less keen. And we liked very thin blades—0.84 millimeters or thinner when measured halfway between the spine and the edge. Surprising as it may seem, even a difference of 0.1 millimeter can make a blade feel less sharp. We also liked blades that maintained their sharpness over time; some started off sharp but felt duller over the course of testing.
Some Flexibility Is Necessary
Flexibility was critical. Unlike a chef's knife or paring knife, a flexible boning knife has a certain degree of give so that it can bend an...
Everything We Tested
Recommended
- Sharpness: 3 stars out of 3.
- Flexibility: 3 stars out of 3.
- Handle Design: 2.5 stars out of 3.
Our new favorite won us over with its ultrasharp, moderately flexible blade, which made every task seem nearly effortless. It kept its edge throughout testing, even after deboning an additional 10 chicken breasts. Its slightly shorter length proved especially advantageous with finer jobs, giving us more control as we boned chicken breasts. And although we wish the plastic handle were made of a grippier material, its slim profile made it easy to grasp in different ways.
- Sharpness: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Flexibility: 3 stars out of 3.
- Handle Design: 2.5 stars out of 3.
Though not quite as sharp as our winner, our former favorite still performed admirably in every task, hugging the curves of bones and joints just as closely thanks to its moderate flexibility. Its textured plastic handle made it particularly easy to hold even when wet or slippery with fat. Several testers found the thicker handle to be a touch unwieldy, preventing them from changing their grips as readily, but large-handed testers preferred it.
- Sharpness: 3 stars out of 3.
- Flexibility: 2 stars out of 3.
- Handle Design: 2.5 stars out of 3.
With the smallest edge angle and a very thin blade, this boning knife was one of the sharpest in the lineup, slicing through meat and joints with great ease. But it was a little too flexible, making it harder to control when deboning chicken breasts or cooked pork shoulder. Its plastic handle was nice and slim, allowing us to switch grips easily, but we wish it were slightly less slippery.
- Sharpness: 3 stars out of 3.
- Flexibility: 2 stars out of 3.
- Handle Design: 2 stars out of 3.
This knife had the thinnest, sharpest blade in the lineup, slicing through meat as if it were butter. But the blade was also the most flexible, so we had to work harder to control it when boning chicken breasts or cooked pork shoulder. The entire knife is made of a single piece of metal, so the handle can get a little too slick, especially when wet or greasy.
- Sharpness: 2 stars out of 3.
- Flexibility: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Handle Design: 2.5 stars out of 3.
Made by the same manufacturer as our Best Buy, this model had an identical handle. While it performed ably, it felt a touch less sharp and agile than other models due to its slightly thicker blade. It was also stiffer than we preferred, making it harder to stay close to the bone when cutting. Its curved blade made for easier slicing but proved awkward to angle when working primarily with the point of the knife, as when boning a chicken breast.
- Sharpness: 2 stars out of 3.
- Flexibility: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Handle Design: 2.5 stars out of 3.
This boning knife did a good job with all tasks, but it felt less sharp in our hands, perhaps due to the fact that its blade was sharpened to a larger 18-degree angle. Despite its name, it was also on the stiffer side, so we couldn't get it to hug the breastbone of the chicken quite as closely as we cut away the meat. Finally, we liked its narrow handle, which allowed us to switch grips easily, but we found the plastic material to be a touch slippery.
Reviews you can trust
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
Miye Bromberg
Miye is a senior editor for ATK Reviews. She covers booze, blades, and gadgets of questionable value.