412 FATTENING, KILLING, AND DRESSING 
4. The best knife blade to use is one not more than two inches 
long and one-fourth of an inch wide, with a sharp point, a straight 
cutting edge, and a thin, flat handle. Figure 189 shows the kind 
of knife recommended by the United States Department of Agri- 
culture. The knife should be stiff, so that it does not bend; of 
the best steel, so that it can be kept sharp and will not be nicked 
in braining; and the handle and blade should be in one piece. 
Such a knife, with the aid of an emery wheel or grindstone and 
oilstone, can be made from an 8-inch flat file. 
To make this knife, the handle of the file should first be ground 
off. Then the blade should be shaped from the small end of the 
file as shown in figure 189. The curve of the point should slope 
from the back downward. A blade of this shape reaches the 
blood-vessels to be cut more surely than does a blade on which 
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After Bureau of Chemistry, United States Department of Agriculture. 
Fig. 189.—An excellent killing knife can be made from an ordinary file. 
the point curves upward. After the blade is made, the ridges 
on the file should be ground down, leaving just enough roughness 
to prevent the knife slipping in the hand of the killer. The length 
of the knife over all should be seven inches. 
Before sticking, the bird is usually suspended by its feet, 
the head down and on a level with the waist of the operator. A 
looped cord is frequently used to hold the bird; but a better plan 
is to bend a piece of wire into the shape shown in figure 188, A, 
the bird’s legs being caught in the loops at the bottom. This 
device is quickly and easily fastened in place, and it holds the 
bird securely with its legs spread, thus facilitating picking. 
Instead of sticking the brain, it was formerly the custom to 
stun the bird, and partially paralyze it, by striking the head 
with a piece of wood; but this method is being generally super- 
seded by cutting and sticking. With large, old birds, stunning is 
sometimes resorted to in order to stop their struggles. 
