Knife and impact cutting of lamb bone

The forces and hence fracture energies required to cut bone are presented in this paper and the merits of cutting with a high speed blade are considered. A plain knife blade was used to cut cancellous and compact lamb bone using three different methods. A microtome was used to produce a range of cut thicknesses which enabled the fracture energy to be separated into friction, surface fracture and plastic deformation energies. A tensile test machine was used to produce thicker off-cuts so that the energy required to cut through full sections of bone could be determined. A high speed rail gun was used to cut at speeds up to 130 m/s. The energy required to cut bone did not change with blade speed. However, the energies measured during the cutting varied over a wide range. In situations in which the surface of the cut bone exhibited a very uneven surface high energy was required, whereas when the resulting cut surface was planar the cutting energy was low. A light weight blade which impacts the bone at high speed will transmit a small impulse to the carcass which may be absorbed without transmitting strain to the muscle/connective tissue. This may allow the development of a high speed knife which will cut bone without excessively damaging the meat surrounding the cut.