[Histonet] Re: band saws

[Robert Richmond]

Hazel Horn in Little Rock AR asks: I am looking for a band saw to cut
our bone tumors. What do I need to be looking for? Power? Size? Other
suggestions?

I don't have any personal experience with it, but at a program about
orthopedic pathology about 10 years ago I heard about a hardware-store
item called a scroll saw. It was cheap - about $200 for quality, $100
for Chinese - and said to be just impossible to cut yourself with.
Disadvantage was its fairly large tabletop footprint.

The Cowboy Way for pathologists sawing bone is a Civil War era
amputation saw, called a Satterlee saw. (I actually saw one in a Civil
War re-enactors' field hospital, complete with chrome plating.) They
last a long time. If I'm not allowed a Satterlee saw, I go to a
hardware store and buy a hacksaw. (Many small pathology services are
no longer able to cut bone.)

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist / Old Sawbones
Knoxville TN