The 6 Best Boning Knives of 2024, Tested & Reviewed

Wusthof Classic Boning Knife — Photo:
Food & Wine / Williams Sonoma

Chef's knives get all the glamour, bread knives are ubiquitous, and paring knives are quiet workhorses. Most home knife sets include at least one of these blades. However, there is another useful knife that should also be included. We're talking about boning knives.

It may sound like a specialized tool for advanced butchery, but the best boning knives are versatile. They offer a high level of control and precision that bulkier chef's knives don't. Boning knives are great for tasks like breaking down a whole chicken for a weeknight dinner or deboning a leg of lamb for an impressive holiday centerpiece. The sharp blade and fine point act like a surgeon's scalpel to separate meat, bone, skin, and connective tissue with quick, shallow flicks.

Chefs have strong opinions about the best boning knives, and we’ve recruited the help of four meat-centric experts for their advice: bespoke knife maker Quintin Middleton of Middleton Made Knives; chef Greg Garrison of Prohibition in Charleston, South Carolina; chef Isaac Toups of Toups' Meatery in New Orleans; and chef Matt Bolus of The 404 Kitchen in Nashville, Tennessee. We paired their advice with our research and the results of in-house knife testing to make our list of the best boning knives.

Our Top Picks

Best Overall:

Wusthof Classic Boning Knife at Amazon $115

Jump to Review

Best Value:

SALE

Victorinox 8-Inch Flexible Fillet Knife at Amazon ~~$47~~ $38

Jump to Review

Best Honesuki:

Mac Japanese Series 6-Inch Boning Knife at Amazon $127

Jump to Review

Best Splurge:

SALE

Shun Classic Flexible Fillet Knife at Amazon ~~$163~~ $104

Jump to Review

Best Curved:

Victorinox 5-Inch Beef Skinning Knife at Amazon $50

Jump to Review

Best for Outdoors:

KastKing Knife at Amazon $30

Jump to Review

Best Overall

Wusthof Classic Boning Knife

PHOTO: Amazon

$115 at Amazon $115 at Williams-Sonoma View on Wusthof.com

Pros

This knife is lightweight and versatile, and the steel takes and holds an edge well.

Cons

The plastic handle could be more comfortable and slip-resistant.

Our top pick is a classic European boning knife design with high-quality forged stainless steel and Wüsthof’s reputation behind it. This knife is up to the challenge for tasks like trimming fat and silverskin, breaking down chickens, seaming pork shoulders, and taking pork loins off the ribs. It’s lightweight, holds an edge well, and re-takes that edge quickly when it’s time for sharpening.

With the classic design, however, comes a somewhat dated handle. The hardened plastic is rather blocky, with right-angle corners that feel uncomfortable, and the smooth surface does little to prevent slipping. The price isn't too bad — on the high end of average but well worth it for the quality.

Blade Material: Stainless steel | Blade Length: 5 inches | Handle Material: Plastic | Weight: 3.5 ounces

Best Value

Victorinox 8-Inch Flexible Fillet Knife

Amazon.

Orig. $47 $38 at Amazon

Pros

A flexible blade makes this inexpensive knife nimble enough for meat, poultry, or fish.

Cons

The handle feels cheap, and the long blade might require some adjustment in technique.

The maker of the famed Swiss Army Knife, Victorinox is one of the finest choices out there for middle-of-the-road kitchen knives. Yes, better blades are available, but the brand can rarely be beaten for its price point. “For a beginner as well as an intermediate level, I would recommend the Victorinox brand,” says Bolus. “They are affordable, built well, and will retain their sharpness for a long time. They also provide an affordable way to learn how to hone the blade on steel and sharpen it on a stone without the risk of messing up a super-expensive blade.”

This Victorinox model took the top spot in our testing of fish fillet knives thanks to its sharp edge, low price, and thin, bendable blade. The flexibility makes this knife easy to maneuver, especially with fish, where it helps to lift the fillet away from the thin and delicate bones. A small amount of give also makes it suited for separating joints, whether chicken wings or beef shoulder. It's quite a bit longer than the other knives on this list, which can be great for dealing with large cuts, but you may have to adjust your technique if you're used to a 5-inch blade.

Our major complaint with this particular Victorinox is the short, narrow handle. It's not substantial enough to feel solid in the hand. and the textured plastic, while easy to clean, doesn't offer a lot of extra grip.

Blade Material: Stainless steel | Blade Length: 8 inches | Handle Material: Plastic | Total Length: 13.5 inches | Weight: 3.1 ounces

Food & Wine / Jason Horn
Food & Wine / Jason Horn

Best Honesuki

Mac Japanese Series 6-Inch Boning Knife

PHOTO: Amazon

$127 at Amazon

Pros

This knife's hard steel holds and retains an edge exceptionally well, and its unique shape is especially made for cutting meat from bone.

Cons

The one-sided bevel can't be used effectively by left-handed cooks.

Garrison prefers using a honesuki knife for boning and filleting. This Japanese design is tall and thick at the bolster for breaking joints and other heavy work, but it tapers for finer control toward the front of the blade and ends in a sharp point. Mac uses molybdenum in the steel for its version, which makes it stiff and hard-edged but retains some of the corrosion resistance of stainless.

This honesuki is single-beveled, which means it's only sharpened from one side of the blade. That's a big advantage in butchering, as the flat side can slide smoothly along bone while the sharp edge removes meat. The problem with this is that single-bevel knives can only be used effectively with one hand: Mac's boning knife is made for righties, and the brand doesn't seem to sell a version for left-handers.

Blade Material: Molybdenum steel | Blade Length: 6 inches | Handle Material: Pakkawood | Weight: 9.6 ounces

Best Splurge

Shun Classic Flexible Fillet Knife

PHOTO: Amazon

Orig. $163 $104 at Amazon

Pros

This artisanal blade is razor-sharp, comfortable to hold, and a joy to look at.

Cons

It's awfully pricy.

With its wavy layered-steel blade and smooth woodgrain handle, the Shun is a beautiful knife. But there’s more to it than looks. Like many Japanese knives, this blade is sharp and well-built, with Shun's signature not-quite-oval handle shape that's secure and comfortable. It was also a top finisher in our fish fillet knife tests, and like the Victorinox above, it's impressively flexible for lots of mobility. The sharp point aids in performing fine detail work and makes trimming large pieces of silver skin significantly easier, but the tall blade has some heft for getting through large pieces of meat.

The big negative? Price. Shun's flexible fillet knife is the most expensive on our list. (However, if you're okay with the cost, you can also look into the brand's gokujo, a stiff, curved blade made for butchery. It has a similarly gorgeous design and did nearly as well in testing.)

Blade Material: Stainless steel | Blade Length: 7 inches | Handle Material: Pakkawood | Total Length: 12 inches | Weight: 3.7 ounces

Food & Wine / Jason Horn
Food & Wine / Jason Horn
Food & Wine / Jason Horn

Best Curved

Victorinox 5-Inch Beef Skinning Knife

PHOTO: Amazon

$50 at Amazon

Pros

This knife is big and strong but versatile enough to do delicate trimming.

Cons

The non-traditional rounded shape takes some practice to get used to.

Toups is an outlier in the boning knife area: “Instead of boning knives, I use a semi-flexible scimitar for all of my butchering purposes. I keep it razor sharp, and the curve of the blade eases the stress on your wrist,” he says. That's why he likes the skinning knife, which, despite the name, is also up to the task of jointing, separating, and portioning without the need to change knives. Victorinox's model has a slip-resistant nylon-plastic handle and a durable stainless steel blade that holds an edge for extended use. The heft of the blade is enough to hack right through poultry bones, but its short length offers lots of fine control.

Victorinox's skinning knife is an excellent version of the genre, and it's quite inexpensive, to boot. It's just an unusual shape not often found in home kitchens, and you'll need some practice to figure out the optimal technique.

Blade Material: Stainless steel | Blade Length: 5 inches | Handle Material: Plastic | Weight: 3.5 ounces

Best for Outdoors

KastKing Knife

PHOTO: Amazon

$30 at Amazon

Pros

This versatile, inexpensive knife is weather-resistance and great for hunting, fishing, or camping.

Cons

The thin blade lends itself better to small jobs.

Another top pick from our fish fillet knife testing, the KastKing features a black-coated blade that's resistant to corrosion even from saltwater, along with a bright orange handle and sheath that stand out in a pile of equipment and supplies. It's great for taking on the boat or into the woods, and more than adequate for filleting a kingfish or field-dressing an animal. The tapered shape lends itself to jointing, while the flexibility will allow it to follow a rib cage for detaching a back strap or the like. And with its price, you won't feel bad if it falls overboard or gets left behind.

The KastKing's name does give away that it's mainly intended for fishing. It's great for birds and small game, too. It's also excellent indoors: Despite the neon color, the slightly squishy handle feels great and it's easy to wash off. If you're talking about serious heavy-duty butchery of a deer or elk, however, the thin blade could make for a lot of work.

Food & Wine / Jason Horn
Food & Wine / Jason Horn
Food & Wine / Jason Horn

Our Favorite Boning Knife

The Wüsthof Classic 5-Inch Boning Knife gives you quality steel and a versatile design for a reasonable price. It's an all-purpose tool for fish, poultry, pork, or beef. For a budget option, the Victorinox 8-Inch Flexible Boning Knife is sharp and nimble, and it won’t break the bank.

Factors to Consider

Blade Flexibility

A boning knife typically has a fairly thin blade, which can often flex and bend somewhat. This helps deal with the irregular shapes of bones and joints to get clean cuts of meat. The thinnest and most flexible boning knives are intended for fish or chicken: They're lightweight and very nimble. But with larger cuts, you'll want a stiffer blade that's less apt to snap in half if you put too much pressure on it.

Blade Shape

There are a lot of different types and cuts of meat you might want to debone, so there are a lot of different shapes of boning knives available. A straight blade allows for more precision and a firmer grip, while a curved one gives you more strength for separating joints or cutting around large bones. A longer knife does more slicing with less effort while giving you less fine control than a short one. In the end, it's a personal choice based on what you use your boning knife for and how you like to hold it. If you're a serious home butcher, you may want two or three different styles for varying purposes.

Materials

When it comes to knife blades, the big question is usually carbon steel versus stainless steel. Stainless is easy to sharpen and resists rust but can't hold as fine an edge; carbon is harder and sharper but is prone to corrosion and pitting (and costs more). And it's not that simple, as each brand has its own "recipe" and production process for steel that strikes a balance between the two sets of characteristics.

Handles also offer many material options. Wood handles provide adequate grip and slip resistance, but unfinished ones must be thoroughly dried and require oiling. Plastic is easier to maintain, but some shapes are boxy and grow uncomfortable after long periods. The texture is also important: A smooth handle washes off easily but tends to get slippery when wet or greasy, while a bumpy surface gives your hand something to grip.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a boning knife and a fillet knife?

A fillet knife is a boning knife designed for use on fish, so there's not really a hard line between the two. A fillet knife typically has a narrow, flexible blade, allowing it to bend and lift the meat away from the tiny fish bones for a clean fillet. A boning knife meant for pork or beef is more rigid, so the blade can get through joints, with a fine point at the end that helps to separate connective tissue. The two styles can be interchangeable, but each has its own advantages.
What’s the best way to sharpen a knife?

There are multiple ways to sharpen a knife, and the best for you depends on how you use your knives and how much effort you want to put into sharpening them. For the cutting connoisseur, a whetstone is probably the best choice: It offers lots of precision and customizability but takes time and careful technique. There are also more automatic knife sharpeners that make the process easier, at the cost of fine control. You can also have your knives sharpened by a professional; there are several mail-in services, and many local farmers' markets have a sharpening booth set up, too.
What’s the best way to keep a knife sharp?

There are two critical secrets keeping a boning knife's (or any knife's) blade sharp in between sharpening sessions. The first is your choice of cutting board. Hard plastic boards last a long time, but they're rough on knives, according to Middleton. “The best cutting surface needs to be soft enough to cut into,” he says. Plastic, hard woods, and even some bamboo materials can dull your knife as it scratches against them. Boards made from softer woods like maple are easier on knives, though you need to clean and maintain them carefully as they're apt to be scratched by the knife.

The second secret is to use your honing steel. Running each side of the blade two or three times along the steel before each use keeps the edge aligned and reduces the damage caused by everyday slicing and chopping. With a boning knife specifically, it's helpful to use the steel every few minutes. Bone is quite hard, and running the blade along it can quickly dull the edge.

Our Expertise

Greg Baker wrote this roundup. He is an award-winning chef, restaurateur, and food writer with four decades of experience in the food industry whose written work has appeared in Food & Wine, Food Republic, and other publications.
Jason Horn updated this story with further testing information. He is a senior writer for Food & Wine with a master's degree in journalism, a culinary school education, and more than 20 years of experience writing about food and drinks. He conducted our in-house tests of brisket slicers, among others. He's assisted in butchering two whole pigs and has made both pancetta and hot dogs from scratch.

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

Tell us why!