I finally stopped using the band saw for breaking down primals

I used to think the band saw was the only way to get clean cuts on bone-in stuff. But after watching a guy at the 2023 NAMP convention in Kansas City break down a whole beef shortloin with just a scimitar and a wood mallet? Changed my whole approach. Faster, less waste, and I'm not constantly stopping to clean bone dust out of the machine. Anyone else ditch the saw for hand work on certain cuts?

2 comments

2 Comments

wyatt5131mo ago

You ever have a buddy who's a total convert on something? My friend Mike, he runs a small butcher shop up in Vermont, used to swear by his band saw for breaking down pork loins. Then he got a bad batch of saw blades and had to hand-cut a whole case of bone-in chops one Friday night. He told me it was his best work ever, no crushed bones and the cuts looked cleaner than anything the saw ever did. Now he only fires up the saw for the big stuff like whole ribs or beef rounds.

river_adams2529d ago

...and then he couldn't go back, right? I got a buddy who welds custom gates and railings, and he used to swear by his plasma cutter for everything. Then his compressor blew a seal and he had to torch a whole trellis by hand with an oxy-acetylene rig. He said the cuts were way smoother and he had way less cleanup grinding off the dross. Now he only fires up the plasma for heavy plate and uses the torch for anything thinner than a quarter inch, swears by it.