Inscription: "Kosher."
Place of origin: Hungary
Audio transcript:
This decorative cleaver in the shape of a cow bears the word kosher, but it could not be used as a chalif, the knife used for kosher slaughter. For one thing, the blade is very dull. A chalif blade needs to be incredibly sharp and have no nicks or imperfections. Even if this blade were sharp enough, it is not long enough. In order for a chalif to be appropriate to the task, its length needs to be about 2/3 the width of the animal in question’s neck. The cleaver has the shape of a cow, which would necessitate a blade length of about eighteen inches, but this knife is only eleven inches.
There are very specific rules about what must be done for a kosher slaughtering, and if any of them are broken, then the meat is no longer kosher and is treated as carion. Slaughter stops being kosher if the cut is made on the wrong part of the neck, if the incision is stopped and restarted, if there is any chopping or hacking, or if the trachea or esophagus is torn. An animal’s meat is also not kosher if after its slaughter it is determined that the animal was sick or that the knife used to kill it had any nicks or imperfections.
In the entire United States, fewer than 300 men are authorized kosher slaughterers.