A Tale of Two Machetes.

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Just a note and food for thought. About a year ago, I was raving about a machete called a corn knife. It was to my mind a very good tool. Light, packs flat, multi-purpose, etc. The other night, I broke it. I will show you pics in a second. Thinking that all machetes were roughly the same, I went and bought a Corona brand machete. Here are the pics of the two of them.



Ok just 1 pic. Anyhow, the corn knife I messed up when I was trying to axe out a knot from a seasoned black spruce. Not smart I know. The corn knife cut like a hatchet, stuck very little, and when it did get stuck, came out easily. it was also a fairly hard steel. I spent 2-3 hrs with a file sharpening it when I got it.

So I brought the Corona home, and spent 30 min. with a file and a whetstone on it. I took it out, and man! a machete sucks. The thing works wonderfully for the little bit of vegetation I tried it on. Every time it got near wood, it would bind up in it, and then you have to wrench it out. It typically breaks things rather than cuts them.

Now I am debating laying the bevels back and shortening the blade to match the corn knife. The corona however has a much milder steel... Sorry for the long post. Some food for thought regarding cutting tools. Long bevel, hard steel...good,brittle. Short bevel, soft steel...???. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

By the way, both machetes have the same thickness of blade. The corn knife has a much harder temper, and the bevels are more than twice as wide as the corona.
 
If you like the corn knife, you might want to look at the bark River Golok sometime. Simlar in some respects, super well made, and a real workhorse.

After you try one, you'll never go back to a regular machete again!
 
wow, I was just about to post about getting a machete (or something to take down brush)

I've been seriously looking at those corn knife types; I don't need to stab anything, and a wide end of the blade should carry the knife through brush and dead wood easier...is there maker/brand on your corn knife?

I've scanned ebay for a bit...looks like a bunch of mall ninja BS mixed with a few quality blades..
 
I have a 18" Ontario machete that looks similar to that Corona in size and shape. I wonder why it doesn't preform? My Ontario has been the best tool of the type out of many, many different machetes, kukris and other large blades. No tool is going to do everything well but the Ontario 18" machete I have seems to do what I need to do.

The blade sinks deep into soft wood and will bind but who cares? I have got used to prying it out with every cut and it is not that bad. It swings with such each that you save energy. I can cut down a 4-6 pine tree with less effort using my 18" machete than with any other non-powered cutting tool. Even an axe is not any easier since you may have to limb a few braches before you can start chopping. Nothing limbs like a machete. I can strip branches free of the smaller twigs and branches as well. Just run the blade down the branch and it is clean.

I think that corn knife looks like it may be handy with some practice. It looks like it would make a good chopper yet would also work for some of the lighter stuff.
 
I am considering a golok, but it is considerably heavier than the corn knife, I think. May have to get one anyway.

DH1, the corn knife is an excellent tool. I have cut through 1 1/4 saplings in one stroke, and 1 1/2 ABS pipe in one stroke. The brand is Union Tools. It had hollow aluminum rivets in the handle which sheared in use, and I replaced with brass pins. If you look closely you can see where the large chip in the edge is.

KGriggs. Those were all the same things I said about the corn knife. I am not sure why this one does not do as well. I suspect the steeper sharpening angle. May have to use some power tools and lay it back. I am considering cutting it back to 16" or so as well.
 
I've got both the 18 and 12 inch Ontarios, and I convexed both of the edges and they hardly bind at all, but go through wood like a hatchet. If you convex the edges of yours, the binding will go away and you'll have a real brush and wood eater. In fact the 12 inch works so great its become my standard woods knife. All I use these days is a pocket knife or two, sometimes a mora, and my 12 inch Ontario.
 
One possibility which you might check out are the bolo knives at www.reflectionsofasia.com . These are bolos from the Philippines, hand-forged out of old Jeep springs, and some people say they are even differentially tempered. They charge $20 apiece for them, including a leather or wooden sheath/scabbard. Shipping is from California, and about 5 bucks. They have a few different kinds. If you're looking for a not-too-heavy knife for lighter vegetation, etc. you might like their Ilocos bolo, style #1, which they call a "straight knife", or maybe their Batangas bolo, in either the short or long length. The Batangas ones seem to have thinner blades that would be closer to, say, a Martindale machete--but I think thicker. The curved-tip, round-tip, and jungle bolos are pretty heavy and thick, and would be better for heavier chopping; not so good for light machete-type work.
 
Here's a link to at least one page dedicated to convex sharpening of the ontario.....http://hossom.com/sharp/

I'm planning to pick up one of these for clearing some backyard brush. If it manages to hold and edge well I'm hoping to put it to more serious use.....
 
Thanks all for the links. Yep, I'm definitely going to put some more work into this. I'll probably shorten it up too. Thanks.
 
Watch out if you start to modify the handle on the corona. I decided to remove the rubbery grip area as it tends to raise blisters. A few seconds on the belt sander and I saw through to the tang. It seems the handles aren't slabs but some molded pieces of junk, more air than plastic. I just ended up wrapping the whole handle in grip tape. Oops...What a rookie mistake I guess.

I'm still waiting for my 18" ontario to arrive in the mail. I'm hoping a nice convex/polish job and some handle mods will turn it into quite a cutting machine.

Please post some pics once the corona mods are done. If nothing else maybe I'll do a bunch of cutting/grinding on mine and turn it into more of a Parang Lading or something similar. It's just fun to watch the sparks fly......
 
Well, I did some rough work on it. Used a coarse sanding belt to convex it, then rough and fine whetstone, then soft arkansas. Used a recipro to cut it down to about 18 inches.






The closeup is trying to show the convexing. Doesn't show that well. The thing balances similar to the corn knife now, but has a much different feel to it. To be expected though. The sparks off the sander seem to show a very low carbon steel, and the stuff was very soft on the whetstone. I tried to do some testing. It worked better than original, but things are too frozen right now to tell for sure how much improvement there is. It definitely does not stick as bad as it used to.:)
 
Just an update on the reprofiled corona. I have been doing some splitting and limbing with this machete lately.:thumbup: :thumbup: The thing cuts beautifully in nice easy swings. I think the corn knife had more penetration due to it's thinner edge, but the corona had a much easier swing. After 1/2hr of splitting and 45min of limbing though, the thing started to lose it's edge. It did not seem to roll, or ding, just lost it's bite. Really not to bad though for the 10 bucks I paid for it. That makes two I like!!! The handle did not loosen, even on some very rough going in some knotty wood I was splitting. Next up I am going to pit this one against a 12" ontario camper when it gets here.
 
One thing about softer steel in a blade like that, you won't have any trouble sharpening it. In theory at least, it shoud be tougher as well.

You don't really need to put a super-fine edge on it, it would only dull faster anyhow. A file or medium-coarse stone should put a nice "toothy" aggressive edge on for you. If you need something to do, go ahead and keep working that convexed bevel back until you can't tell where it starts/stops.

I'm a bit of a tightwad myself (OK, I'm just broke) so I love it when someone takes a kind of mediocre tool, fiddles with it some, and winds up liking it just fine :thumbup:
 
Yep. The thing went through birch and spruce up to about 3/4 or better without slowing down. It would get hung up in things over an inch thick. Because of the length, I guess, you did not have to swing it hard to do that. Just give it an easy swing to get it moving, and it would just go through whatever. You could build a shelter in a heartbeat, cut a big pile of browse, etc. Probably be nice to have a saw too, though, if you were going to need to cut a lot of wood for a long fire. Machete could split a lot of it though.
 
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