Cutting beef bones on a bandsaw?

[KIMOSABE]

Anybody here ever cut bones on a bandsaw? I did it years ago to make some drawer handles.

I tried cross cutting one beef bone last year and it went so slow (if it wasn't a dull blade when I started, it was by the time I got finished) and the smell was pretty bad, kinda like the smell from a dentist's drill when it's grinding away on enamel.

I'm getting my saw shaped up these days, and have some new blades coming, including a Wood Slicer, but I'd hate to start out by making it dull. I want to reserve the Wood Slicer for resawing.

What kind of blade to butchers use?

How would a hand saw or hack saw be better?

[Doug Miller]

Similar to the type that's used for cutting metal. If you can find a metal-cutting bandsaw blade in the proper size, that'd be the thing to use.

Hand *wood* saw would likely be worse (teeth too coarse). Hacksaw is much better suited to cutting hard materials.

[Ed Edelenbos]

I've cut a fair amount of bone on a bandsaw. It shouldn't take very long... the smell sounds normal. I haven't cut any lately but I seem to remember using a fairly fine tooth 1/4" blade (on a Delta 14" saw)

Ed

[Lee Michaels]

"Doug Miller" wrote

I used to butcher all the time on the farm. The meat saw that we used looked like a giant hacksaw.

At some point my dad decided that the manual approach took too long and started to use a chain saw. Whic was OK, except I had to clean the saw afterwards.

[Maxwell Lol]

If you have a lot to do, I'd first try a portable powered bandsaw (~$70 at Harbor Fright)

[dzin]

I've cut bone and antler with a 1/4X 6 TPI with no problem. The material is years old and I get very little odor.

Gene

[Ed Edelenbos]

One thing to add about beef bones (from a butcher) or any other un (or minimally) processed bones... I always boiled them for about 30 min. (and let them cool) before using them.

Ed

[Bored Borg]

On Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:53:06 +0000, KIMOSABE wrote (in article ):

Biggest problem was the struggling and the damn screaming...

[Ed Edelenbos]

Do it at night... they're a pushover.

Ed

[bsa441]

Boy, I know that smell! I just had a small tumor removed from my cheek (on my head, silly). The doc hit an artery, and had to cauterize the hell out of it to stanch the bleeding. Sure didn't smell like the roast pig we have every summer.

Maybe burnt pig.