Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 146, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 June 1919 — KNIFE OF STEEL FOR KILLING POULTRY [ARTICLE]

KNIFE OF STEEL FOR KILLING POULTRY

Most Blades Are Too Broad and Too Large to Handle. They Are Insanitary as Blood Collects at Junction of Blade and Handle —Eiflht-lnch File Is Recommended. (Prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture.) Knives, in common use for bleeding and braining poultry are not suited to their purpose, according to United States department of agriculture specialists. The blades are too broad and too long and the curve at the point should be on the back instead of on the cutting edge. The handle is so large that a killer is encouraged to use too much force In making the cut to bleed, whereas a light touch, of the sharp knife, properly directed, Is all that is needed to cut the blood vessels. The knives are also Insanitary, in that dirt collects at the junction of the blade and handle. The knife should be small, with a narrow blade; stiff, so that It does not bend; of the best steel, so that it can be kept sharp and is not nicked when used in braining; and the handle and blade should be in one piece. Such a knife, with the aid of the packing house emery wheel or grindstone and oilstone, can be made from an eight-inch flat file. To make it, the blade should be- shaped from the small end of the file. It should be, for chickens, two inches long, one-fourth inch wide," and one-sixteenth inch thick at the back. For turkeys, the blade should be two and one-half inches long. The curve to make the point should slope from the back downward. A blade of this shape reaches the blood vessels more-sorely than does a blade on which the point corves upward. After the blade is made the ridges on the file should be ground down, leaving jnst enough roughness to prevent the knife slipping in the hand of the killer. The handle should be five inches loqg.