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Counted my 90th cow last Tuesday and it scared me more than the first one
I keep a little tally book in my apron pocket of every whole animal I break down, just to track wear on my knives. Last Tuesday I hit 90 for the month at my shop here in Boise, which is double what I did in January. My wrist was hurting every night and I couldn't figure out why until I added up the numbers. If you're doing more than 20 a week on a single block, please check your blade angle, my 8 inch breaking knife was riding way too high and I was muscling through every cut. Where do you all draw the line before you switch to a bigger saw or bring in a second hand?
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young.kim21d ago
The blade angle thing is huge and it gets worse the deeper you go into the day. Around animal 15 or 16 my grip starts to drift and I catch myself cutting with the tip instead of the belly of the blade, which means I'm pushing way harder than I need to. That's when the wrist and forearm start screaming at night. One thing that helped me was watching my off hand too, not just the knife hand, because if you're not pulling the cut open with your left the right just fights the meat the whole way. 20 a week single handed is about my limit before I'd want a second person on the rail, honestly, mostly because the fatigue makes bad habits, and bad habits are what wreck your joints long term.
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