That time my band saw blade snapped mid-cut on a ribeye primal

I was breaking down a whole ribeye at the shop last Tuesday, about halfway through cutting it into steaks, and my 14-inch band saw blade just snapped with a loud pop. The piece of meat flew off the table and landed on the floor, covered in sawdust and grime. I had to stop everything, fish the meat out, trim off the dirty parts, and then spent 20 minutes swapping the blade while the walk-in cooler door kept beeping at me. Has anyone else had a blade go on a big piece of meat like that? How do you handle the cleanup and make sure the customer doesn't get shorted on weight?

2 comments

2 Comments

schmidt.amy10d ago

Did you weigh the meat before and after trimming off the dirty parts? Because that's the real issue here, not just the blade snapping. If you lost any more than a couple ounces you're basically eating into your profit margin on that primal. You gotta have a system for tracking that weight loss so you can adjust prices or warn the customer ahead of time. Otherwise you're just giving away free meat.

noah91710d agoTop Commenter

Honestly I had a buddy who ran a small butcher shop and he snapped a blade exactly like this on a whole striploin once. He didn't weigh the trim before and after like @schmidt.amy is saying, just tossed it all in the grinder pile and figured it was a write-off. Then his accountant came back and said he lost nearly half a pound on that cut alone, which over a month adds up to something like $40 in free meat basically. He started weighing everything after that, even the dirty bits.