Broke a saw blade mid-cut on a frozen hog leg yesterday

I was breaking down a half pig at the shop in Portland and hit something rock hard just above the hock. My bandsaw blade snapped with this loud ping sound and the leg went flying off the table into a bucket of brine. Turns out someone left a steel shot pellet in the shoulder from a hunt, and I never felt it during trimming. Had to stop everything, swap the blade, and fish the leg out of that salty mess. Took me a solid 20 minutes to get back on track. Any of you guys ever find weird stuff like buckshot or broken needles in your primals?

2 comments

2 Comments

richard_hall6d ago

Someone left a steel shot pellet in the shoulder from a hunt, and I never felt it during trimming" - how did you not feel that thing when you were breaking it down? Ive done plenty of hog processing and buckshot usually shows up when youre feeling for bone joints or running a knife along the shoulder blade. Was this one of those tiny birdshot pellets or a bigger one? Because a standard steel shot pellet would be hard to miss if you were paying attention. Sounds like you got unlucky with a fragment that was buried deep in the muscle or maybe it was random debris from a dirty kill. Either way thats a rough way to learn to double check your primals before they hit the saw.

stone.evan3d ago

Ever had a pellet hide deep in a shoulder like that before, or was this a first for you?