Stiff and wide is the heavy-duty end of boning. There is no give in the blade at all, so pressure applied at the handle arrives at the tip undiminished — which is how you pop a joint or drive through connective tissue without the knife bowing away from the cut.
This is the Traditional version: high-carbon steel on a riveted beech handle, the configuration Dexter has supplied to butchers for generations. High-carbon takes a sharper edge than stain-free steel and responds faster on a steel, at the cost of needing to be dried.
Dexter-Russell has made cutlery in Southbridge, Massachusetts since 1818 and is the oldest cutlery manufacturer in the United States. Traditional is its original pattern book — high-carbon steel blades on hardwood handles, ground to shapes the company has been making for over a century.
