I have been discussing with Jeff Green the idea of what to use to keep bandsaw blades clean from buildup. Tom suggested I put this on the board for all to join in. Since I am new to the forum, I thought this may be boring and overly simple for most of you.
I had planned to use 3/4 diesel and 1/4 bar chain oil and with an auto windshield washer pump, spray the solution on the blade top and bottom. Of course, it would only spray when I pushed the button.
However, I am also hearing that water and some additives are a good solution too.
So, all you Doctors of Sawmilling, join in and give me the
best way to handle this. ::)
Hey dave,
Everybody has a different idea to keep the blade from gumming up. I like just water because it doesn't hurt the wood. It doesn't hurt the blade either, contrary to what some technicians say. If you saw enough the blade won't get rusty. If you don't then a light coat of oil will prevent rust. I've never found the light dusting of rust that gets on a blade overnight to hurt anything and I store blades on my truck that get quite a bit of rust. Granted they would be better without it but I have better things to do than polish blades everyday....like saw wood. The first 10 seconds in a log will polish a blade real quick and the rust goes away. I've never found pitting to be a problem. If you left the blade unattended for a couple of months it may be effected enough to cause concern.
I use water and sometimes a little dish soap in it...pinesol would do the same thing I guess. I've heard of folks using pinesol. I use Ivory mainly or whatever is handy. I don't use soap unless I just have to because it cuts the grease and oil on the machine and I think it limits the life of the bearings. Especially the guide bearings on a roller guide.
I don't use oil because I wouldn't want diesel or other petroleum product on my wood if I were my customer. You don't know what somebody will do with that wood. It may effect a finish down the road somewhere or heck, somebody may eat a steak off of it one day. I just feel more comfortable providing a product to my customers that they wouldn't have to second guess what might be on it. I have understood that petroleum products will deteriorate the v-belts used for tires on some mills. I ran into that problem on my WoodMizer years ago and that was the first question the customer service rep ask me, "did you get oil on the belts?". The belt had shrunk so tight onto the blade wheel that I had to cut it off with a chisel.
I have had to occassionally use a shot of wd-40 to clean a blade that got out of hand.
The best thing to prevent gumming is a sharp...I mean really sharp blade and enough set to keep the blade body from running against the wood in the kerf. Too much set and you leave a lot of sawdust in the kerf which will cause you problems too. Too little set will cause gumming and a miriad of other problems as well. If the blade is sharp it runs cool and the sap doesn't tend to stick the sawdust onto the blade as bad. One of the first things I suspect when I get gumming is a dull blade.
If the alignment of the saw is bad and the blade is diving or otherwise contacting the board or cant then you will get gumming. It is imperative that the blade run true in the kerf.
Don't forget to saw though. Some problems are intermittant and will stop your production if you spend too much time on them.
Papa Dave,
Never think anything is overly simple for this bunch. :D
Besides, thats the idea here, we learn, and so do the folks that come here in the future. Besides you will never get to 200 posts and get a grea :)t hat by "not" posting
I sure do want my hat. Winter is coming. 8)
Tom, on your reply you make a good point as does Jeff Green about using water.
So, tell me, do you let the water drip on the top of the blade (only) all the time and if so how much. Is it gravity fed or do I need the pump?
http://www.Wood-Mizer.com/domino/html/woodmizer/woodmizer.nsf
LubeMizer™ Additive
i use 50/50 bar oil and diesel. it has worked fine for two years. i only squirt it from an old oil can when there is build up or too much blade noise. no stain on lumber, and so far the only time it seems like it is not as effective as water is on old pine that tends to gum easily. no water saves the freezing hassels in winter and no lugging around two or three 5 gallon containers.
Here is a link to one of our forum members site. He offers a blade lube system. I built his website but I don't know anything about the luber accept that he makes and sells em.
https://forestryforum.com/mcs/luber.htm
Papa Dave,
I gravity feed from a 3 gal. container mounted on the mast of my LT40 through a little brass valve mounted on the outside of the tower next to my brake and it drips or sometimes floods onto the top of the blade just in front of the stationary blade guide. This was a Woodmizer design, not one of my own. They have since moved the delivery spout to the side of the movable guide with the logic being that the blade will be wet when it enters the cant so that the pitch won't stick. I have never had reason to change mine.
Cold weather sawyers may have trouble with freezing and I guess there are ways to combat that, anti-freeze maybe.
I have heard a lot of discussion about the spray bottle of diesel and bar oil all of which I suppose works.
I have stayed with water and a little soap if needed because it
works and water just seems to always be available when I would have to inventory a special lubricant. I guess I may look into shelving items if I didn't move around so much. It would be neat to have all these different suggested lubricants and track covers and motor covers and blade configurations and sharpening wheels and.......and........well you get the picture.
Its not that the other things work any better or any worse as much as it is my philosophy to Keep it simple Stupid. I try to find what will work, don't try to fix what ain't broke and do my experimenting in a controlled environment and time frame separate from my "proven" production environment. Sometimes I run into some pretty interesting stuff when I am testing but I try to remember that is what I am doing.
I have tried petroleum products on the blade and found that I don't care for it. I have tried different materials for a brake and found that I prefer the one woodmizer makes. I know what I can use in a pinch though. I tried covering the rails on the mill and found it un-productive because I don't sit up long enough for it to be of any use. I do go through a lot of automatic transmission oil on the rails and tower and chains. Silicon works good on the towers too but it sure is expensive, something else I have to inventory and sometimes it gets on the wood which I fear may give my customers problems down the road.
I've learned to perform regular maintenance on all the electrical connections and that has saved me a lot of down time. I don't use drying sprays etc as some automotive parts people have suggested to me because "it is just something else to inventory".
I do keep some spray White Lithium grease on hand and some chain lube for those times when I need to make something slick fast "in the heat of battle" :D It still doesn't replace a grease gun and regular maintenance though.
What in the world got me off on this tirade? I sit and pass the podium to someone else. Jeez....I never used to talk this much....must like what I'm doing.
yes atf is needed to keep the mizer smooth. sometimes i stop at lunch and do it again. then clean the wipers and wd-40 the chains. but she always keeps workin.
:)After cutting an extensive amount of wood on my bandmill (300bf or so), I feel it is time to share some of the vast store of knowledge I have aquired, First - it really doesn't help to put 2 more quarts of oil in your 20hp Honda engine than it calls for - lots of smoke and 2 fouled plugs were the result, Next, remember to tighten your band blade tension - my first cuts looked like a roller coaster ride, finally, make sure the water (or water mix) used to cool/lubricate the blade gets distributed across the entire width of the blade or the dry part will get gummed up and the wet part will be clean and your saw cut will look like it came thru a circle mill ..... Boy is this an education!! (Great fun though!!) :D :D :D
This is all so complicated, I think I will keep my day job. I still want my hat, though.
Ok, I think I will take the pump back and use water. ;D
Hang onto the pump if you don't have much in it, papa dave. It may come in handy to deliver water sometime. The way to stop the flow of water on a Woodmizer is to pass the plastic tubing through a "U" shaped piece of metal so that when you raise the clutch handle it pinches the tubing. It may be that you could use your pump to deliver water under pressure when you really needed to flood the blade. Or better yet, put the nozzle on the top of the mill and on a hot day you could spray a mist of cool water over your head and be comfortable. :D
I wonder if the you could use the pressure of the pump to pump Auto trans fluid onto the rails and chain intermittantly. No Joke, this may be something to look into. the best way to keep the rails from getting gum and sawdust buildup is to keep them wet with ATF. I put ATF on the cotton wiper on my Woodmizer but need to clean it and re-oil it every couple of hours.or so. Hmmmmmm.
It's an old story often told. What kind of liquid do you put on the blade and what is it for? :P
For some reason, I get buy just fine 95% of the time just running dry. Even when I get sap buildup, I use very little water mixed with Pinesol. Even then I hesitate to use it when I'm actually sawing. What I do is - when I'm getting ready to make the next cut, I'll turn on the water and spin up the blade and set there and watch the sap wash away. Then I'll turn the water off and wait until the blade looks nearly dry. The whole process only takes a few seconds. Then I'll start sawing. Generally, I'll get several cuts before a repeat is required. Sometimes only the sap layer causes problems. I figure the sawdust is sticking because it's wet so why add more water to the problem? :-[
Mary uses quite a lot of water/soap mix when sawing. For some reason she thinks she's suppose to. I'll take over sawing the same log and use none and get just as good a result.
On the other end of the though process, I talked to one Wood-Mizer owner who thought the water bottle was a joke and took his off. He adapted the water line to a garden hose and ran it full blast all the time! Said it as messy and the offbearers were always wet and complaining but it kept the sap down and the dust didn't fly around. Probably looked like thin grits* pouring out of the chute. :o
(If y-all live north of the Mason/Dixon Line, Tom can tell you what a Grit is.) ;)
Ah yes, Grits. That wonderful staple of the south. Course ground hominy boiled in water for a half hour or better, to the consistancy of pancake batter or plaster, seasoned with salt, pepper and served with copius amounts of butter or red-eye gravy and "soft fried" eggs, over-easy or sunny side up, such that you're torn betwixt mixing them with the grits or "sopping' with your toast. It's a terrible thing to get your bacon or sausage patties in the grits, but everyone intentionally/accidentally seems to get little pieces in there and that is the first bite the fork takes off of the plate.
Then a swallow of steaming hot coffee to wash it down in preparation for some more.
Ah grits ! Perhaps that is what makes sawing with water as a blade lubricant so attractive.
I'll stick to fried potatoes. I can't imagine sitting down for preakfast and thinking "mmm mmmmM sawmill by products, can't wait!"
Maybe Charlie could translate for some us Northerners what the attraction is.
(its pronounced greeeeeeeeeeeits, isn't it) :D
Where I work at my "day job", we have a sister facility in Athens, GA. Some of our people get the opportunity to travel down there from time to time. They all come back from their first trip telling of the beautiful campus of UG, the double barrel canon setting on the courthouse lawn, girls in the bars out on Atlanta HY, and of Grits. All have some kind of negative encounter story with Grits. :-X
Being born and raise here in the middle of Missouri, I can be as south as the next guy. ;) So when I've gone down there, I can slip comfortably into the indigenous population.
I've come to believe the waitress have developed a test for suspected Yankees spies.
When you order breakfast, they'll ask, "Do you want grits with that?". And if you ask, "What a grit?", they'll know you're a Yankee. If you say politely, "No", they'll know you're a Yankee that has been south before. But if your say, "Hell, YES! Comes with grits, don't it?", they'll figure you just from Alabama or maybe Tennessee. Then you better eat'm and like'm because they'll be a watchin'. Also be prepared for the follow-up questions: "Do you want jelly or catsup to go on them grits?" ::)
Bannock is good with boiled maple sap so keep that maple sap off your band and on your bannock!
In dire confusion I ran to my browser to learn what a bannock was before I showed my ignorance on NM (national monitors). It sounds like a biscuit to me mmmmmmmm like'm best with cane syrup.
Bannock was the main source of food for northern trappers for many years.
Isnt a Bannock the blade that goes on the end of a Canadian Rifle? Come on Kevin this has got to be a Cunuck thing cause I am dang near as north as you compared to most and I never heard of it, (them?)
I don`t know why I bother ...
Bannock
Over the years I've tried so many variations and most have been quite acceptable but extremely heavy and bland. This one is a basic light rendition that can be made into everything from a fish coating to pancakes. Like all bannock recipes there is always room for personal touches.
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp Lard (oil makes it heavy)
1 egg, optional
1/2 cup water or more till consistency of dough or batter
Add raisins, dried apple, banana chips, fresh berries (optional)
Combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in clean pail,. Add lard. Rub in to form fine crumbs. if using egg, combine with water. Add to flour mixture. Stir to form soft dough. knead until smooth. about 10 seconds.
Lightly grease a heavy cast iron skillet with lard. Dust with flour. Place half of the dough in pan,. Heat pan over live coals five minutes. Raise pan to 1 1/2 feet above coals. Bake five to ten minutes longer or until underside is lightly brown and crusty. Turn and bake on the other side about 10-12 minutes. Bake remaining dough as above.
Options: Bake 30 minutes or deep fry until brown.
Yield: two bannocks or about 3 - 4 servings.
Variation:
Roll dough out on canoe or wanigan until 1/4 inch thick. Mix brown sugar, butter or margarine, cinnamon, nutmeg. Spread evenly on dough. Roll dough back up. Slice 1 inch thick. Place on frying pan or cookie sheet. Bake in reflector oven or as above until brown on both sides. Makes a fantastic cinnamon bun for breakfast or dessert.
Jeff, I suspect you`ve never heard of a wanigan either ...
http://www.wcha.org/wcj/v22_n6/wanigan.html
Bannock: yankee hardtack, omit the sugar and egg for the full effect, as they are weak on sausage gravy recipes,not edible till it gets worms...at least then there's a protien source (OK thats a loose quote from a confederate soldier on hardtack);D
We point out the grit tree to the unsuspecting (redcedar).
A mature grit tree puts out almost 200 pounds of grits per season. :D
Gotta admit I've become a sucker for the Friday fish fry with potato pancakes (roesti) up here. :) Hey their blackstrap comes off a tree.
Beans were harvested today.
If'n any of y'all come to my house for breakfast in Dover, Minnesota you're most likely gonna get grits with 2 eggs over light, fried bacon or ham and toast or biscuits with some guava jelly and strong black coffee.
I ain't never seen as many potatoes eaten 'til I came to Minnesota. They eat potatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They even make pancakes out of 'em.:o
Grits are also delicious with fried panfish. There just ain't much better than a platter of fried bream (that's bluegill up here), grits and hushpuppies. MMMmmm boy! I'm gettin' hungry now.;)
Da Norskies in Minnesota love lutefisk :-[ I tried some and it was like eating fish flavored jello. If you go to a lutefisk dinner at one of the Lutheren Churches, you'll get a plate of lutefisk and sit down at a table that has pitchers of butter. Then you pour the butter over the lutefisk...... :-/ echhhhhhhh
I wonder if lutefisk would be a good blade lubricant? ::) It might be worth a try. But then it might corrode everything... never mind ???
Lutefisk i had read about- NO ONE says anything nice about it- one of those tribal things that you love to hate..but bannock bread is in principle a very useful thing- bread without the oven. Much like scones- another Scottish version.
lw
And grits- I don't care if I'm from Maine- I love 'em. I think it was the red-eye gravy and the eggs that put me over the edge on this one. The grits are just the absolutely necessary counterpoint. I just can't understand how people can stand to add salt to red-eye gravy tho :o :o...If you don't have red-eye you can do alright with butter and salt and pepper- but it's not the same..lw
Well, Tom it looks like all the experts have come through and solved the problem of removing sap from the blade.
Now, the question is, when are you going to cook breakfast for us. I am a southern boy and dearly love my grits and sausage and ham and bacon and biscuits and cane syrup. ;D ;D ;D
;D ;D ;D me too, just come knock on the door. If it's one thing I like to do it's eat. More like a sport to me and I don't need much of an excuse. ;D ;D ;D
Well, Tom, we can eat breakfast with you in Florida and then we will have to hurry and go eat dinner with Charlie in Minnesota.
Charlie said they have panfish with grits and hushpuppies and guava jelly. Sounds just like home in North Florida. Only we had cheese grits.
Charlie may be a transplant from Florida. :D
Hey Papa Dave, You hit it right on the button.
Charlie is my little brother and we both hail from Ft. Pierce originally. He went to work for IBM in the late 60's after a stint with the railroad and was assigned to Inventory control for System 3's.
IBM, for some ungodly reason, closed the System 3 shop in Boca Raton where Charlie was working and "offered" him, along with the others, a job with the new System 3 shop in Rochester, Minn.
Charlie measured his current salary against the raise he would get by accepting unemployment compensation and decided to move his family to Minn.
His only concern at the time was where he could get some grits. It took a long time but the local grocery saw the writing on the wall when all these Southern boys walked in wanting to know where the Grits shelf was.
He says that he can buy them there now but they aren't the same as the Water Ground Brands we are used to down here.
He buys some when he visits here and I must make note to send him some in a "care package".
Grits is....are....? ? one of the few things he has retained from his childhood. Now he tells me about Kilbosa (?), blood sausage, brains, Heavy coats and snowshoes.. I don't understand it all but I pretend. :)
I thought something was fishy. The guava jelly is made in Florida, you know. By the way, have you ever tried Swamp Cabbage with the fish and grits and hushpuppies?
Oooh, a ring of kielbasa steamed on a pile of hashbrowns and onions. Now your talking. 8)
Man I can't believe Charlie fell for that old lutefisk bit. Of course them Norwegians try it on everybody. My old man ( a Dane by birth) always said that lutefisk is just perfectly good torsk ruined! ::)
I'm with y'all on the red eye gravy, my first intruduction to it was by a southern lady in the hills in northern GA. But I believe I'll keep taken it over them biscuits. :)
If I was to walk into the store here and ask for grits, I'd end up with a sack of stuff to throw on the driveway to keep from slippin on the ice. What the heck's a hominy anyway? Must be some kinda corn or somethin. Might have try 'em once just because, but I don't think I could give up my potatoes. A man's got to have his potatoes. 8)
MMmmmm mmmm! Biscuits! I luvs biscuits. Ya gotta start off the meal eatin' biscuits with butter, then ya have to finish the main course by using biscuits to sop up the plate and then you pour cane syrup on a biscuit for dessert. Now that's eatin'!8) 8) 8)
I love swamp cabbage too. I bet most Yanks ain't never even heard of it. You're right Papa Dave, swamp cabbage and fish or swamp cabbage and venison, or swamp cabbage and hog or swamp cabbage and swamp cabbage. I'm droolin' ;D
Eggsander, what I don't understand 'bout these Scandies up here. They say they won't eat grits but will eat cornmeal mush.::) ::) ::) I think they're afraid to try grits 'cause they might like'em. One thing I did notice is that some restaurants down south don't know how to fix grits. Some of 'em make e'm too soupy and some forget to put salt in it. I figure it must be a cook from the northern persuasion that just doesn't know how to cook good grits. No wonder some northerners don't like grits, 'cause they are probably tastin' some fixed by somebody that just don't know any better. >:(
Hominy: corn thats been lyed to :D
My computer was downloading an update so I scared up this description while waiting for it.
http://www.mtnlaurel.com/Recipes/hominy.htm
Or those unsuspecting northerners got served instant grits, about the same as calling Tang orange juice.
I went into a restaurant while we were starting a job and saw the lumberjack's breakfast and ordered it without looking too hard at the details. Three plates appeared from the kitchen with pancakes, hash browns, eggs, bacon, sausage,grits, toast. Over the next hour and 2 pots of coffee I damaged myself, but having been raised right, always clean my plate and compliment the cook. About the time I saw the light at the end of the tunnel the waitress appeared apologizing for her forgetfulness...as she set down a plate of biscuits and gravy. :'(
My sister spent a year in Norway on a student exchange. She got a little tired of so much fish and so little fresh produce. She ended up at the doc's after gorging on veggies and fruit her first day home. ::)
You know, Mary was raised on a farm in upper Illinois - almost on the Wisconsin border. ??? She says her mom would make grits (may have called them something else) and would let a bread pan full set until it was firm enough to slice. ;D She would then fry the slices - I would assume in sausage or bacon grease. Sounds good to me! ;)
Well, I reckon you can have fried grits in the north too. I luv fried grits (hmmmmmm, seems like I luv dang near any food......'cept lutefisk). We never made grits to just fry. The way it's done in the south is, you make a huge pot of grits, then what is left over is sliced and fried the next day. We always just fry it in bacon grease, but some people get fancy and dip the sliced grits in egg and then fry it. :o 8) 8) 8)
Ok after reading about all this good food I'm quite hungry. ;D
Grits --if they are cooked up right are great, if not well that goes with out saying.
Ok here is something that they make around here and is actually good. They call it mush. It consists of cornmeal and flour, water, milk. Mixed up thick and bake for awhile in a pan. Then slice thin and pan fry. Serve with tomato gravy. Tomato sauce, milk, flour, sugar. Sort of a sweet tomato soup.
Kilbosa and blood sausage are both good as well.
I've been lucky enough in life to live in a few different states. Both in the north and the south. Each state has it's own sort of menu of local foods. What is everyday fare in some places would leave an upturned nose in others and vice versa.
Here is something that the kids like and never heard of until moving to DE. It's called cracker soup. Heat milk and then crush saltines into the milk until desired thickness is obtained. Never had it but the kids love it. Makes ya wonder.
My favorite meal of the day is breakfast followed by supper. Well if were having something good for supper then supper might be my favorite. I love all food!
On the subject of sap buildup. If your syrup pours too slow just heat it up alittle. 8)
Gordon
My most favorite meals are breakfast, lunch and dinner/supper. I like snacks too. In fact, I am like Charlie & Tom, I like most anything good. 8) 8)
OK, here's a couple..SCRAPPLE! Cornmeal with pork scraps..you cook the pork in water til you have pork bits and a broth. Then you put in the cornmeal, some seasoning, cook til thick, and let it set in bread pans. Cool, slice, and fry. Ecellent when fried til the little bits get crispy and then you pour a little maple syrup over it. Some folks object to the meat in it- call it 'hairy scrapple'- but I say that part is what's good when they just get crispy/cruncy and brown. I haven't butchered hogs in about 8 years. Never started keeping them, up here in Maine. My regular mess is bad enough- with hogs you make a PROFESSIONAL, executive level mess.
Now what was the other things- pales in comparision- oh yes- kielbasa- but you cook it with potatoes and kraut. Boil the kielbasa with the potatoes and do the kraut on the side. Better than New England boiled dinner, and that's saying a lot!
A virtual feast, folks! Think I can feel the poundage going on just thinking about it! :D :D :D lw
Scrapple, oh yeah, that was another one Charlie was telling me about. He didn't know what was in it though. I've heard that brains make their way into it and If that is true then I would have to tippy toe into scrapple to find out just how good they were. Sounds good. I like little pieces of meat that get fried crispy. mmmm
Kielbasa and Kraut kinda, maybe, a little bit, sorta reminds me of Collards and pork chops. See, you put a collards into a pot till they are heaped over the top, put a lid on and cook them down till the lid closes the pot. Then you put in a smoked ham hock and salt and boil them some more .....maybe 2 or 3 hours, then you put seasoned pork chops on top of them and cook for another half hour or better till the pork chops are tender. mmmmmmm that's good with a great big glass of sweet ice tea and biscuits.
We need a "plump" smiley.
Yep LW, Scrapple is gooooood..........'specially with grits! ;D
O.k. Now how does Scrapple compare to Cracklings? ::)
Ain't Cracklings what's left over from rendering down lard? :D
B.T.Y. Last I was in South Boston, VA, I went into a gas station/convenience store there. I began to notice about a hundred varieties of fried pork rinds. :o I can't begin to list all the styles, colors and flavors available there. They must really enjoy their fried pork rinds.
8) 8)
Either one would be good with grits. ::) I have eaten both and it is a totally different experience. But they are both good. :D
Well Bibbyman, cracklin' is pig skin that's been fried up. It's sorta chewy, so you can chew on a piece of cracklin' for quite awhile if ya wanna. My grandma used to make Cracklin' Bread, which was like a HUGE biscuit full of bits of cracklin'. She'd mix up the dough and cook it in a cast iron skillet on the stove. She'd use a plate to get it turned over during cooking. Cracklin' might be good to help keep the sap from building up on bandsaw blades too.::) ;D
Pork rinds must be made by using intense heat, cause I never saw Grandma make pork rinds. We always bought them in the store. I luvs to munch on pork rinds....... Now, I don't think they would clean up a bandsaw blade unless it was by friction.::)
Scrapple is more akin to a finely ground pork sausage ('cept it has cornmeal init) that is compressed into a cube. Then ya slice it and fry up the slices. I think Scrapple is a Pennslyvania Dutch dish. But if you like sausage, you'll like scrapple......'specially if you have a plate of grits with it. ;D I don't think it would clean sawblades either......best stick with the cracklin' for that. ;)
Thats it Charlie. Toe the line. Don't let this thread get off course on little bit. I had the sense that it was starting to wander a little, but thanks to you it's still right on track. ;)
Well, it has been a real close call. I was beginning to worry about the sap on the blade. Glad to see that everyone still was trying to solve the problem. :D :D :D
Oh, I see now. I was confused because I thought this thread was about syrup buildup on your blade when your cutting your grits, ....or your bannok, ..........or something like that. I know it wasn't lutefisk cuz ya can't cut that with a blade........You know come to think of it, why would someone cut their dinner with a band saw anyway? Oh well, I think I'll just browse through some other threads here on The Pantryforum. ;)
So OK- while we're on the topic (inasmuch as we ARE on the topic)- I do have a bandsaw on my porch. (Not part of a mill, it was for metal or wood and came out of a tech school woodshop in NC years ago.) It's not working now, but that's another story. When it WAS working, it was either for wood- OR- when I was butchering, it was a valuable adjunct for my butchering. Never had bought a power meat saw, and if it's a question of using a hand meat saw for beef, I'll usually go the boneless route. BUT- to do chops and etc, it's totally excellent to have the stuff bout half frozen- (I hang beef for a week or so at 34-38*F ideally) and then zing it thru the bandsaw. After that, you really DO have to clean the blade and everything else. The fat piles up gruesomely. Lets you know that if you were going to do it often, you'd want a bona fide, easy-to-clean power saw designed for just that purpose.
Chops are good, but... for freezer space, I tend to go the boneless route more often. Same with moose. Now if I had the technology for making bone meal, it'd be good.. I like recycling. lw
Got a customer with a bandsaw in the meat house on his farm and he keeps a hose with a nozzle handy to wash the saw down intermittantly. The water and scraps fall out a chute under the saw to a washtub outside that he empties when he's through. He's real proud of his mechanization. Guess it doesn't take much to entertain some of us.
The difference in a wood saw, meat saw and metal saw, I've been told, is basically the speed of the band. You may be able to figure out what it was before you got it by calculating the fpm of the band. ' Course, if it works, who cares, right?
In terms of safety- the saw I have has the electrical parts in a non-sealed area beneath the blade and table- so washing is out. I did wiping and sweeping.
Back off-topic- I am so bummed out!!! I was just doing laundry- the husband put in a freezer in the cellar last year and cuz of the old 2-prong outlets down there, he led an extension cord up around and plugged it in behind the dryer upstairs. He said just a month or so ago- 'I'm asking for trouble, sooner or later someone will unplug that and I'll lose my meat.'
Well, you guessed it. I was looking over the area as I cleaned it off (a moracle in itself)- and the cord was UNPLUGGED. So I went down and looked- and it probably was at least a week- all completely melted and rank. FORTUNATELY we are at the low ebb- no beef, most of the deer gone, and a lot of last years' moose used- but not all. Mike is off on a hunting trip (catered spoil-your-ass-rotten at King and Bartlett..) so he won't know til Sunday.
I just plugged it back in. I won't be cleaning it out by myself.. but now I also have to identify the culprit.. :( >:( lw
Hey Jeff!!! On a lighter note- this thread seems to me to be almost an all-time high in terms of # of times read! Do you have stats on the most popular threads- most read, most replies, etc? I bet this one scored big partly because of the food aspect. :D lw
I think the funny story thread is actually by far the most read thread. Everyone should take the time to read through that. We could publish a book from that thread I bet.
About bandsaws and meat. Never use a saw to cut venison! Bone dust is one of the culprits other then tallow and connective tissue that taint the flavor of speed beef.
Tammy and I never touch a deer with a saw. The whole process is handled by de-jointing and de-boneing, and removing all non-meat tissue. Tammy processes on the average of 15 to 20 deer a year, because thats all we can handle. We have customers that give thier deer away if Tammy can't cut it up. Most have wives that hated venison till persauded to taste a properly processed animal. Not a "butchered" one from a meat market or normal deer processing business.
'Speed beef'? Is that like 'center line bovine'? I agree about deboning venison. In light of the 'mad cow' scare, it probably is best to avoid cutting any bone in the ungulate species which encases nervous tissue- so that would include the chops and anything from along the backbone. lw
Mad Cow Disease,
Now that makes me ask about cutting bone. I thought the disease was all over the cow. Is it just in the bone? or just in the nerves? Is it killed by cooking? is it a toxin or a being?
I would be in dire straights without an occassional pot of Backbone or neckbone and rice.
QuoteI would be in dire straights without an occassional pot of Backbone or neckbone and rice.
Your breakfasts sound good Tom, but I'm not so sure about supper.
A wonderful dish, Swamp. Especially when there are a lot of hungry mouths and and a thin paycheck.
Boil Neckbones or backbones (we use generally pork but beef works good too) in water with salt and black pepper until the bone gets soft enough that a fork can be forceably shoved into it. Dice up an onion and put it in there until it is at least clear. The water level must be kept to a fairly high level while this is going on because when the onion is done you put rice in the pot using the broth as the liquid and cook it until it is done and separated but not necessarily fluffy.
Serve with biscuits or fried cornbread and lots of sweet tea.
It is bone-knawing good.and will feed an army on a pittance.
OK, to the best of my knowledge- mad cow disease is a BSE- bovine spongiform encephalitis. Bovine is cow, spongiform is what happens to the brain tissue, and encephalitis is the clinical condition that makes them 'mad'- uncoordinated and ultimately, dead.
A sheep form is scrapie (the sheep slowly get weaker and less coordinated and lean against the fences- scraping their sides raw- (I guess this is different from normal sheep behavior??), the disease that the cannibals used to get from eating each others brains' is (I think) kuru, and the regular western world human form is Kreutzfeld-jacob disease. All are the result of what they used to call 'slow viruses' and sometimes refer to as 'prions'. They are bits of DNA (?) (I'm not taking time to look this up for total accuracy, just spilling my guts as I often do here at extravagant length and dubious value)- that are somehow coated or protected- not by the conventional virus form, but in a way that makes them immune to inactivation by normal cooking temps. If you eat nervous tissue infected by this stuff- you could be infected and at some future date (it is 'slow', hence the term slow virus) you will show signs much like the animal- tremor, incooordination, damage to brain tissue, a dementia (I believe), and eventual death. And nobody should eat your brain either- cooked or raw.. We don't generally practice that type of ritual insanity anyway, thank God.
When they did the first work on this in the '70s, they already had the sheep and the cannibal examples, and the Kreutzfeld-Jacob disease was being related to them. The cannibal example showed tranmissibility in humans- I think at that point K-J was thought to be inherited(?)- but I don't think anyone knew of transmission from other species to humans. And I didn't hear of mad cow disease in that context at that time.
Several of the hunting mags this year talked about the wild ungulate population having a form of this- so to me brain is out, and the same thing with the spinal column. As for the long bones of the limbs- well, with game I just cut the meat off anyway. You do have peripheral nerves throughout the body. What I don't remember is whether BSE is in the gray matter only- in which case it would be in the brain and the spinal cord but not out in the peripheral nerves. hmm. If I get the chance to look it up I'll get back to you.
Quite a shift of gears from muddling along about anthrax. ::)
lw
Hmm, muddling, that's the 2nd time today. I think I like that word.
sheep scrapple sounds silly 8)
QuoteA wonderful dish, Swamp
Until the day when I'm very hungry and someone plops that dish in front of me, I'll just have to take your word for it, Tom. ;)
8) 8) 8) If you really want to treat yourself slice some liverwurst (thick) and place in between two slices of multigrain bread covered with REAL mayonaise, throw in a few dill pickle chips and some fresh onion .......... HMMMMMM!!! ..... Now wash that down with a very cold glass of 1 or 2% Milk ........ Or you can make a run down to Louisiana and pick up some boudan (sounds like boo dan) - Don't know what's in it and don't want to - It's like a little heaven on earth!!!! (although I did eat 5 lbs of it one day and spent the next three days in the hospital with tubes stuck in me!!) ....... I tried grits twice .... Yuck!! .... Must have been a conspiricy between cooks!!! :-X :-/ :'(
Quotesheep scrapple sounds silly 8)
Yes- sounds like the best they can do at playing soccer or something. I wish I could draw farside comix and post them. But the sheep I'm picturing are animated- or as animated as sheep get.. :o lw
I bet liverwurst would be good for keeping the sap off of the blade!!! :D :D :D
I was going through some old posts and came across this one that hadn't been added to in a long time. It started out a simple enough question but then some fool made a mistake of mentioning that staple food of the Dixie - GRITS and the whole topic got derailed.
There are a few new members who maybe haven't dug to the bottom of all the post and maybe a few of us who have "Old Timer's" that may enjoy reading some of the posts again.
For best results, start with page 1.
Thanks for dredging this one up, Bib. I got so hongry reading it, I ate a jelly donut left over from yesterday's shaft...er..staff meeting.
Wonder what happened to Papa Dave? He is from this area, and I was looking forward to meeting him, then he just disappeared. ???
BOUDAN. Now that stuff is worth fightin for. Yessirreeeeee
when I changed from soap & water to keosene I started having problems. The tire's on my mill abosorbed the keosene and stretched.
Russ,
That is why I use water instead of petroleum products on my blades. My V belt on my WoodMizer got so tight I had to cut it off. I was also concerned about the hydraulic hoses, etc.
Water's cheaper too, and readily available. :D
Thanks Bibbyman! I just reread the whole thing and sure did enjoy it. I do wonder what happened to Papa Dave. He said he wanted a hat and then stopped at 76 posts. I hope nothing bad happened to him. ::)
Cooscoos, I just discovered it... Mabe someone else noticed it too. It is right there in the stores! It's pretty good and easy to make for a guy on the go. It looks kinda like grits.
Now I am so DanG hungry I forgot what I was going to talk about lubing something. All I got to say now is that 'round these parts gravy is a fork food.
ARKANSAWYER
Most every guy probably thinks their mom is the best cook there ever was. Well, I can't say that. Mom gets so mad every time she makes a family dinner - someone will make fun of her white gravy. It's surely thick enough to stand a spoon in - even when hot. Sometimes, you have to mix in mashed'taters just to thin 'um down. Mom only cooks meat one way - burnt done.
One thing Mom can fix better than Mary and that's wild mushrooms. Mary don't get the grease hot enough to get them crisp. (Don't tell Mary I said I told y-all that.)
Tree sap is a very unusual material. Sometimes it acts as a liquid, sometimes as a crystal. If you ever held a piece of black tar, the kind used to make asphalt, you may have noticed that if you squeeze it slowly it is pliable like play dough. But if you drop it on a hard floor it will shatter like glass. It becomes brittle when acted upon at high speed. Tree sap is similar. I've been using with great success a wire brush attachment for a cordless drill. Very light pressure but high speed. Normally sticky, nasty stuff turns into dust. Completely effortless and takes less than a minute. Hope this helps someone.