Specialized poultry butchery knives with a rigid triangular profile and an aggressively asymmetric, near-A bevel ground almost entirely on one side of the blade, like a chisel, so the flat back can ride directly against bone. bevel, which lets the blade travel flush along bone surfaces and maximize meat yield. The stiff profile gives controlled leverage for prying through joints.
Primary tasks: deboning poultry, including removing the backbone from chicken and breaking down whole birds through cartilaginous joints. The point drives through cartilage while the edge follows the bone.
Honesuki vs. garasuki: the honesuki (145–165mm) is refined for chicken-scale poultry; the garasuki is the larger version (170–200mm) for bigger birds such as turkey, duck, and goose.
Vs. the Western boning knife: the honesuki is stiffer and less flexible than a boning knife, relying on triangular geometry and its point rather than flex to follow bone.
Ideal steel: tough, mid-hardness options such as AEB-L, 14C28N, and VG-10.