Butcher knife

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A butcher knife is an utillitarian knife. It is used primarily for the butchering and or dressing of animals. During the late 1700's to mid 1840's, the butcher knife was a key tool for mountain men. Simple, useful and cheap to produce, they were used for everything from skinning beaver, cutting food, fighting indians, and scalping. During this time, I. Wilson, of Sheffield, England was a major exporter of this type of knife to the Americas. In the 1830's an American company named J. Russell became the major producer of inexpensive, high quality cutlery. They soon became a name in every household and in the mountain man mythos.

Even today, the butcher knife is used throughout the world in the meat processing trade. The cleaver knife is a similar tool but with a lighter and thinner blade