Somewhat OT:Portable Bandsaw for Bones

The import ones are about $90 or so, right? Less if on sale/with a coupon? Might be worth a try.

There is actually something called a bone saw which may work better than a hacksaw, the frame looks similar but it's about twice the size. I would assume (but am willing to be proven wrong) that the tooth form and size is better optimized for the material. Maybe try looking through a kitchen supply or sporting goods catalog or website at the hunting/butchering section.

Or you could just subcontract out the labor. My lab will work through the thick end of a knuckle bone in about ten or 20 minutes... ;) --Glenn Lyford

Try feeding her raw chicken wings or necks or alternately ask your butcher to stick some bones through his saw and freeze up a few kilos. Cost of a saw and the effort of cleaning it might outweight the cost of the butcher doing it for you.

Wondering about a cutoff wheel in a dremel or something like that? RR

Try a coarser blade for your hacksaw, one with the fewest TPI that you can get.

Or use a circular saw.

Jon

In one of the labs where I worked we had a standard woodworking band saw to section bones. The main problem was that it had too few teeth per inch and as a result, would sometimes grab a bone and "throw" it. Aside from that, a wood cutting band saw blade will cut bone just fine. A band saw blade with something like 18 teeth per inch should work.

RWL

If you get them at a meat/grocery store ask if they will cut them up for you on their saw. The butcher shop I frequent doesn't mind.

MikeB

Get a butcher to do it, bone dust is not healthy.

We use a Sawzall with a coarse blade for splitting the ribcage on deer we dress out. You could probably adapt one of the HF pneumatic body saws for the same type of thing, the Sawzall blades would have to be ground down for the shank to fit, though. Since these are fresh bones, you'll get bone meal, not dust, you still want avoid having dried bone dust getting stirred up. From one vet, the round bones are OK, the long flat ones splinter and give the poor critter a dose of needles in the gut.

Stan

I've heard that you should never, ever let a dog have chicken bones (or any other kind of bird), because they shatter, and can seriously injure or kill the dog.

Hope This Helps! Rich

i think that's only cooked bones, which are brittle. uncooked bones are a lot softer.

I have a 14 year old dog & a 11 year old one. They have both eaten cooked chicken bones all their lives, with no ill effects.

I asked the vet about it & got the standard line, so I pressed her: "Do you not think that wolves & coyotes eat the bones of birds?" "Well, yes. But ...". And: "Have you ever seen a dog with a problem from eating chicken bones?" "Yes - I've seen bowel impactions." I.e., bowel blockage from a plug of undigested bones. Not exactly sharp-splinters-puncturing-the-insides.

This is another of the "I've heard" things that go like this:

- I've always heard that it's so, and

- it's reasonable,

- therefore it must be so I think that I'll call it Engelhardt's Fallacy, to put a handle on it & get my name attached to something .

Bob

The deer hunters I know here in the Piney forests of East Texas - they dress and pack-out only what they want to take home. The rest will be gone in hours by foxes, wolves and bears as well as crows and other small vermin.

They determine it is part of forest management - sharing and preventing deer from falling prey in vicious attack.

Mart> >> Hey all,