Saw a whole pig breakdown change at the county fair last fall

I was at the Smith County Fair in Ohio last September, watching a demo by an old timer named Earl who still breaks down hogs with a hand saw and bone knife. He showed me how he trims the belly for bacon, and I realized my electric bandsaw was wasting nearly 3 pounds of meat per pig. Has anyone else tried going back to manual tools for certain cuts to save yield?

3 comments

3 Comments

hannah_wells19d ago

Earl's hand saw trick sounds like something I gotta try myself!

phoenix_martin4019d ago

Wait @hannah_wells have you actually watched Earl do it start to finish? I gotta push back a little here because that trick looks good on video but its way harder than it seems. The angle he cuts at is super specific and if you dont get it exactly right you end up with a jagged mess that wont even fit together. I tried it once on some cedar fence boards and it came out looking like a beaver chewed on it. Clamping is a must but even then the saw can bind up real bad if the wood has any twist or knot in it. I'd say practice on scrap wood first before you try it on anything you actually care about.

evan54319d ago

Did you try clamping the board first?