You Want A What?

J

John Andrews

Joined
Jan 24, 2003
Messages
2,767
As you too well know, once in a while we get a stumper to build. A lady asked me to make her a knife to cut FROZEN rolls of hamburger. Well, that kind of rules out a regular knife or even a double handled blade, for safety's sake. Nope, she doesn't want a saw. I considered a shear-type in a frame kind of like a paper cutter.The lady's daughter works in the kitchen of a nursing home and wanted it for that application. And it probably should be idiot proof. I'm still scratching my head over this one. Anyone have any ideas?
 
I have a knife made for that. The name on it is, Lifetime XC, Stainless Steel, Japan. On the mark side, its stamped, Pierre Santini, in script. These types of knives were popular for awhile, in the 50's. They were a (supposedly) multi task knife. The top of the blade was for cutting(sawing) through frozen foods, the bottom was a wave pattern of large serrations, which I use as a bread knife.
Anyway, the top is made up of sharp pointed, even serrations, alternating in 1" sections from one side of the blade to the other. In other words, there will be a section on the left, then the next on the right, left, right. etc. Looking at one side of the knife, you would see a section of serrations, followed by a blank section. I assume it was done that way as a Mickey Mouse form of kerf. I hope this is somewhat understandable. I does not do the job it was intended for well at all. In fact, I only tried it once. A meat saw sounds like a great alternative.
 
Thanks, Mike. I understand what you are saying. Maybe large serrations and a drawknife-like double handle is the answer unless someone else has an idea.
 
I think a guillotine with a handle much like a paper cutter would be the way to go. Does she mean that the patties are formed and frozen together. If so the maybe something like a large oyster knife would work if all she wants is something to separate the patties.

Mark
 
A hammer/cleaver setup sounds safest. Both hands will be out of the way of the blade. How about a Presto Log cutter?
 
Unfortunately they are frozen rolls, not patties. I like the neck chopper or saw idea, but she rejected the saw idea right away. Perhaps I had better back away from the whole thing.Even with a disclaimer she still might cut 4 or 5 fingers off.And guess who she is gonna file suit on. If one of you are interested in making it, let me know, I'll turn her over to you.
 
Heres an idea that might get you started.

Make a shear blade set up like a paper cutter. To make things a little safer, and give a little more leverage, make the arm an L shape, with the blade being the short leg of the "L" and the pivot being the corner. You want it on its side so that when you push down on the handle, the blade pushes away from you back against a stop.


then bolt the whole contraption on top of a microwave :D

I've got an extra hacksaw frame I'll sell her too ;)

Seriously, nothing is going to work real well on frozen meat. They make a similar style shear for molding though. If you can cut a 1/2"thick by 2 1/2" wide peice of pine with one you could hopefully cut a hunk of frozen meat :confused:
 
Tell her to buy the meat in smaller packages and she can keep her fingers intact.
 
I don't know why she won't accept a saw setup. I don't really want to make anything that she or her daughter will probably really hurt themselves with. I think I'm going to tell her to take a saw setup or forget it. Thanks all for the replys.
 
Maybe you could 'trick' her. Make a blade with very small pointy serrations using a triangular file or something similar. Maybe even angle them slightly. Now, to you and me, that's a saw, but maybe if you make it look like a kitchen knife she'll be satisfied. Did she say serrations are entirely out of the question?
 
Disco, good idea! And I'm guessing she would go for that. I know just how I could make that, too. Where the points of the teeth would normally be would be a regular knife edge. The serrations would have flat sharp cutting edges the entire cutting edge of the blade. See, I'm getting smarter already listening to you guys! By the time this day is over my wife is going to realize what a smart bastid I am now! Sincerely, thanks for all the help, everyone!
 
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