At 01:14 PM 5/24/2009, you wrote: >Of course the ram lamb had to get himself killed Saturday evening of the >three-day Memorial Day weekend. My custom slaughter guy wasn't home. The meat >packer was closed. It's 6PM and I'm looking at the 60-lb lamb lying bloated in >the pasture, soon to be a siren call to every coyote in the county. The other >ram lambs are looking the other way, unwilling to fess up to who delivered the >fatal blow. So I'm stuck with the job of skinning, dressing, and cutting up >about 30 lb of meat for the dogs. I didn't mind the skinning and dressing >because I'd not done it before, so there was a certain novelty to the chore. >But I've had to cut up carcasses for dog food before and it is a long, not fun >job. Nevertheless, I plugged my MP3 player with its Clive Cussler audiobook >into my ears and got that carcass skinned and the legs and rib cage bagged in >two hours. I stashed everything into the spare fridge in the garage, too >pooped to deal with cutting up the meat. > >So today was meat cutting day. Because it's dog food, I got away with cutting >everything into 2-lb chunks, bone and all. Even so, that's a lot of legbone >and rib cutting to do with a small handheld meat hacksaw. Now that everything >is packaged and in the freezer, the idea of buying a bandsaw is looking really >good. I don't have many unexpected sheep deaths, so a bandsaw won't get a lot >of use. Perhaps I could get good at cutting my own steaks and save on the $35 >butcher fee. > >I Googled and it seems there are sportsman models available for $250 to $330. >Do any of you know of less expensive options? I'm not really too familiar with >shop tools, but I was wondering if there is a kind of bandsaw that I could >look for in a farm auction that would work. Do any of you have experience >using such a tool in lieu of an actual meat bandsaw? > >Carol
I've got one word for you... Sawzall! They work great for cutting up meat and bone. I often use one to cut a hanging carcass in half(and quarters, depending on what I'm doing), it makes short work of the job. Harbor freight sells a pretty cheap sawzall that I wouldn't use for demolition, but is definitely up to the task of butchering. They even have cordless models, if you don't want to be restricted by a cord. It's much cheaper than a bandsaw. Julian _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
