Needed Equipment - Tools of the Trade

I got a message from Josh letting me know that we were a go for the initial day I'd requested (he'd gotten another order so he could take more than one hog to the processor).

Now panic set it.  Was I ready?  Did I have a clue as to what I was doing?  Why am I doing this again?  Whose bright idea was this?  What the heck is a sirloin again and how do I remove an aitch bone?  I was sure I was going to mess this up.

I know.  The suspense is killing you.  Show us THE MEAT!

First lets talk about stuff that is needed to do this process.  Bear in mind that many people who have way more knowledge than I do might have many different ideas as to what you really need.  However, after all my research I felt like I wouldn't be a complete bozo for at least starting with the following (*Please note - this is what I bought - but that doesn't mean it was the best for the job - read the follow up to the process where I post observations on it all):

The Meat.  Yes - to butcher a pig it turns out, you need a pig.  Please see the previous posts about how I went about acquiring said pork.

Knives.  From what I've researched there are a couple "must haves" here.

The first being a boning knife.  The purpose of a boning knife is to get around all those weird angles when you are trying to remove a bone from a piece of meat.  It should be thinner and more slender than say a regular chef's knife.
There appear to be three categories of boning knives.  Flexible, semi-flexible, and stiff.  One manufacturer's idea of semi-flexible could very well be another manufacturer's idea of stiff.  There really isn't any general consensus here but I spoke with someone at MadCowCutlery.com and they said that the semi-flexible 7 inch models seemed to be the leading sellers in that category.  So... I chose a Mundial Mundigrip 6 inch semi-flexible stainless boning knife.

Secondly, I needed a larger butcher style knife for some of the larger cutting jobs.  I saw more than one video of someone doing an entire carcass with a boning knife but I figured there was a reason that the "butcher" knife moniker existed so who was I to try to get cocky and try to be an expert. There are several different style knives in this category - you'll see the words cimiter, breaking, splitting, and butcher used when referring to the blades for this type of work.  I went with something cheap - The Old Hickory 10 inch Butcher.  This knife is NOT stainless - which means it will tarnish over time and develop a patina (this is a good thing) and must be kept dry or it will rust.  I chose a high carbon steel blade instead of stainless due to the ease of keeping it sharp.  While they don't hold an edge as long as stainless blades, they are reportedly easier to keep sharp with a honing steel.  Speaking of which...

Bone saw.  You are going to have to saw through bones.  Now, if you have a meat table saw or are fine with using your Black and Decker table saw in your garage, you might be able to get away without one.  But everything I've read says that this is a must have.  So rather than try to reinvent the wheel, I bought this one.

Honing steel.  Keeping your blades sharp is critical.  The duller the knife the more likely you will cut yourself (and the harder it will be to cut).  If you don't already have one, then you need to get one.  I know, you have that cool ChefMate electric knife sharpener that makes all sorts of racket and sharpens like a banshee.  Well, you have to run a clean knife through that thing... and stopping to wash your blade off each time to want to sharpen it is probably not how you want to spend your time.  You can toss the steel in the dishwasher when you are done.  I bought this one.

Cleaver.  This is probably the first thing to go under the optional heading.  You can likely get away without one.  I went ahead and bought this one because it was cheap (are you seeing a pattern form here?).

Scraper.  This is also potentially optional.  The point of this is for scraping the fat and meat bits off your work surface.  Especially handy if you have wooden cutting surfaces.  I had one in the drawer (you can see it in the picture above) - I have no idea where I got it or what I got it for... but I've used it for oddball stuff over the years.

Other Stuff:

Cutting Boards/Work surface.  This might be an obvious item but you have to bear in mind that this carcass is going to be pretty long.  I had a couple larger maple cutting boards/chopping blocks already and my plan was to use those to cut on.  John Boos makes great stuff!

Bone Duster/Scraper.  There will be bone dust every time you use your saw.  It is unsightly, and from what I understand can hinder the long term storage quality while in your freezer.  Plus... nobody wants to eat it.  So, you'll need to scrape it off.  You can use towels, your hands, the aforementioned scraper, or you can buy one I did.

Sausage pricker.   I didn't have one of these for pricking sausages to punch holes.  So I bought one.  Optional - especially if you are not planning to case any of your sausage.

Recipe Ingredients.  Have your stuff already in the pantry.  Curing salt, regular salt, sugar, spices, charcoal (if applicable).  It be a certainty that if you wait to make sure that you have everything, you'll discover you don't on Sunday evening after everything is closed.  Just get it now... and don't forget to get your sausage casings - that's likely not something you can find at your local grocery store).

Bowls or containers.  As you are cutting this bad boy up, you are going to want to have a place to toss the fat, trimmings or miscellaneous cuts while they are waiting for final packaging or processing.  Also, if you are planning to brine you'll need some

Bar rags.  Something to wipe your hands off with or to wipe off the greasy knife handle with.  I suppose if you don't care about that shirt you are wearing you can always use that.

Freezing/wrapping.  You obviously can't leave this stuff sitting on the counter after you butcher it.  You are likely going to want to freeze some of it.  There are a couple options here.  You can get butcher paper and freezer paper.  Or, you can go the route of a vacuum sealer such as a food saver.  I initially wanted to go the butcher/freezer paper route but I wasn't sure how much I would need and the rolls weren't cheap (and neither were the dispensers - esp if ordering two  - one for freezer paper and one for butcher paper).  Since we could do other stuff with the food saver, we went that route and got a FoodSaver GameSaver Bronze and some extra bags.