All About Meat Saws & Meat Saw Blades

If you do a lot of meat-chopping in your restaurant, a mechanical meat saw is a required piece of kitchen equipment. Full-sized meat saws allow you to chop up every variety of meat you need, but they're not necessarily for every restaurant.

In this article, we'll briefly answer some common questions we hear about meat saws as well as their band saw blades.

Answering Your FAQs About Meat Saws

1 - Who needs a meat saw?

Large countertop or freestanding meat saws are more of a niche item, for restaurants and other establishments that do a lot of their own work with meat. If your operation is comfortable just buying their meat pre-cut from the local deli, and working on it with your existing kitchen equipment, you probably don't need one. A hand saw will be fine for occasional meat-cutting.

Of course, there is something to be said for ordering large slabs of meat in bulk. If you have the storage space, a dedicated meat saw could pay for itself pretty quickly.

2 - What kind of blades does a meat saw use?

Meat saws typically look and feel much like wood saws - and that extends to their blades as well.  They utilize band saw blades, large circular blades with teeth lining one side.  These can be moved at extremely high speeds and are effective at cutting any kind of meat - even meat still frozen.

3 - What kinds of saw blades are available?

The main difference between various meat saw blades is in the number of teeth per inch they feature.  This is generally 2, 3, or 4 teeth per inch.

Low numbers of teeth are good at cutting through harder meats (such as frozen) but may leave a slightly ragged edge that will need to be trimmed.  More teeth per inch will create a smoother cut but may become jammed on particularly thick or hardfrozen cuts.

4 - How do I know when the saw needs a new blade?

Generally, the most common reason to replace a blade is if it's going dull. It is technically possible to re-sharpen a band saw blade, but this requires a lot of manual labor. If your blade isn't cutting as well as it used to, buying a new blade is usually the better option. They're cheap.

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