Attention Ask Ontario

Hello,
Will the new 1075 carbon steel Ontario military machete bend or break under high impact or possible extreme flexion?
My 1-18 Military machete in 1095 snapped in the middle of the blade 14 or 15 years ago. I really liked its design and especially its weight, unlike the Tramontina machete I have since replaced it with and which, although very resilient, is not well suited to the type of tenacious and fibrous vegetation where I live in Canada.
I would like to buy another Ontario Military machete but I'm afraid it will break like the old one...
Thank you.
 
The 1075 steel blade should neither bend or break under high impact or extreme flexion. The primarily lathe martensite formed by the lower carbon 1075 is quite a bit tougher than 1095 especially when it comes to fracturing (one of the reasons I selected the steel). Also the manganese content in 1075 permits a slower critical cooling rate for the formation of martensite so it responds better to heat treatment eliminating possible mixed microstructures which could cause blade failure.
 
Ok. Thank you.
I've found this on YouTube. Given the date of the videos I assume it must be 1075 steel :

- ONTARIO SAWBACK 18 " MACHETE - DESTRUCTION TEST - UNTIL IT BREAKS - STEEL: 1095 CARBON STEEL :

- ONTARIO Economy Machete 12" - DESTRUCTION TEST - UNTIL IT BREAKS - 1095 carbon steel :

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Xapur said:
Ok. Thank you.
I've found this on YouTube. Given the date of the videos I assume it must be 1075 steel :

- ONTARIO SAWBACK 18 " MACHETE - DESTRUCTION TEST - UNTIL IT BREAKS - STEEL: 1095 CARBON STEEL :

- ONTARIO Economy Machete 12" - DESTRUCTION TEST - UNTIL IT BREAKS - 1095 carbon steel :

​

Click to expand...
JOEX always mistakens 1075 as 1095. All his knives are newly purchasaed and 1095 was long gone, he could never have a OKC 1095 through his Europa sales channel. Not his fault, as "1095" still widely advertised on every intenet sales platform, Amazon, half America, you name it.

The only place tells the 1075, is in OKC catalog.

I first was also a bit confused with different specifications from different sources. Later on, I gave up. Welcome to the knife business 2023.
 
That's what I think too Bramley.
All I want is that my new Ontario machete doesn't break like a piece of glass on hard wood like my old one, which would be unacceptable and dangerous for such an impact tool manufactured in the present century with today's modern technical means.
While JoeX's messy videos look like they were made by a tall retarded teenager, they have the advantage of giving us an uncompromising view of the real impact and bending resistance of the blades that are basically sold to us with words that we are supposed to believe in the same way as the Word of the Lord. What doesn't work anymore when you almost take a f****** 8" piece of steel in the head.
 
Xapur said:
That's what I think too Bramley.
All I want is that my new Ontario machete doesn't break like a piece of glass on hard wood like my old one, which would be unacceptable and dangerous for such an impact tool manufactured in the present century with today's modern technical means.
While JoeX's messy videos look like they were made by a tall retarded teenager, they have the advantage of giving us an uncompromising view of the real impact and bending resistance of the blades that are basically sold to us with words that we are supposed to believe in the same way as the Word of the Lord. What doesn't work anymore when you almost take a f****** 8" piece of steel in the head.
Click to expand...
true. but, bear in mind, JOEX basically put all knives into absolute abuse.

OKC, Cold Steel are two brands I settle down. Not beacuse they are unbreakable. Beacuse it takes JOEX a long time to break them, and price is barely at the very bottom in the market.

Dont pay too much attention over steel types. All steel breaks. BUT not all steel could be under $50 and retain a reasonable time of abuse.

my suggestion: get 2 budget price OKC, one for backup. Very very unlikely you break two machettes in one occuation.
 
I have three 125th anniversary OKC knives named for Finger Lakes. Am I missing any?
I have Keuka, Seneca, and Cayuga.
{Looks like the region claims 11 lakes plus Ontario. I grew up thinking there were five Fnger Lakes.]
 
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Mr. Xapur and Mr. bramley02- I have tried to shed some light on the steel and testing issues, please let me know if I have clarified or further confused things.

Steel Confusion- In the beginning of this year I surveyed seven of the most popular online sellers of Ontario Knives and found between 30%-80% of the sellers had the steel "incorrectly" identified. This could be a result of the sellers not updating their steel information but could also be an accurate description of older inventory which have 1095 blades. I found Ontario inventory on some of the sites that included knives that Ontario has not made for many years which confirms the fact that there are lots of older and discontinued Ontario Knives floating around out there. What is the steel in the two machetes in the video? Without a chemical analysis it is impossible to tell. To further add to the confusion...

18" and 12" Economy Machete in the video- The 18" machete is likely to be 1075 and this is reflected in its ability to flex and hold together even though is has saw teeth cut into the back of the blade. Saw teeth, holes in the blade or any sharp transition in profile or grind form stress risers and can greatly reduce a blades toughness. The "Economy" machete raises a couple of questions about blade material and ancient inventory. Production of the "Economy" ended in 2016 and it was made of 1095 steel and the blade was 0.095" thick not 0.125" steel which is standard thickness for the machetes. If the machete was a recent standard 12" machete it would be 0.125" thick and made of 1075 steel. So the 12" machete in the video could be an actual "Economy" machete or a standard model with either 1095 or 1075 steel depending on the age of the seller's inventory.

I believe I am the first person to shoot a knife testing video when I worked for Cold Steel back in the early 1990s. I started working for Cold Steel in 1988 and one of the first things I did for them was testing various knives. The tests were based on the practical testing of the hand forged knives that were being developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s by a group of bladesmiths in the Northeast. The blades were being hand forged and heat treated by eye in coal burning forges which is not the most controlled heat treating environment (my forge was outdoors so I did all my heat treating at night to better identify the blade colors). The tests were used in order to see if our steel selection, blade geometry and heat treatment were successful and used as quality control and to be able to keep track of improvements in the performance characteristics of the blades. The tests included cutting free hanging manila rope, repeated cutting of manila rope, cutting hardwood and softwood, flexing in a vise and measuring the angle of deflection and driving the point of the knife into a hardwood block and snapping it out. Testing involved a certain amount of experience and expertise and factors such as the sound the blade made while cutting the rope, the level of resistance in the cut, the finish of the cut surfaces, etc. all helped us make great advances in our techniques and our knives performance. When testing the knives for Cold Steel I applied the same tests and documented them with videos and written reports. Just before the SHOT Show in which the Trailmaster was premiered Lynn called me and said he wanted a testing video of the Trailmaster to show at the SHOT Show. So I scripted, "starred" and shot the video in my shop using the standard bladesmiths tests. All of the tests were directly related to aspects of the knife's performance in the field and focussed on whether the knife fulfilled its design and manufacturing intent. Soon after I became aware of the potential for a testing video to become a "circus act" of irrelevant but visually exciting "tests" especially considering Lynn's aggressive marketing techniques which is why I declined to participate in subsequent "testing" videos. Knives are tools and should be tested in a way that is consistent with their function. To test or fault a tool for something that has nothing to do with its designed function is telling us nothing about the tool but a lot about the "tester".
 
Hey everyone,

Im new here, please bear with me if I’m posting in the wrong area. I just wanted to find out a bit more about Ontario Knife Company being sold. I reached out to them concerning an issue I was having with one of my OKC knives. I was told my knife is definitely “not right”, but they were sold and not honoring their warranty at this time. The representative also told me that the new owner has not determined how they are going to handle warranty claims going forward. I really feel this is a bad move on the part of the new owner, I honestly won’t be purchasing any other knives from them unless this gets sorted out. Thoughts? Any news about this issue that I’m not aware of?
 
I heard about the closing of the OKC factory in Franklinville and wondered what the status is of that building and equipment, and whether any of the former OKC folks might be interested in manufacturing blades on a small scale for a third party.

Any info that anyone is willing & able to share would be much appreciated!
 
With OKC Spec Plus knives, it's easy to determine if the steel is 1075 or 1095. The Spec Plus knives with the new MOLLE sheaths are 1075. The older Cordura/leather sheaths are 1095. There are a few exceptions, as some of their Spec Plus machete-type knives were 5160. I believe those models were always 5160, which is an excellent steel.

With OKC's 18" military machetes, it's a bit more difficult to determine, now that OKC was sold. I bought an 18" non-sawback machete with the D-handle. It clearly stated it was 1075 on the OKC website, and I double checked many review websites. For the standard handle versions, regular and sawback, I remember Ontario had two different models for each on their website. The machetes looked identical, but one was 1075, and the other was 1095. Now that OKC has been sold, I'm looking to purchase an 18" sawback. I prefer the 1075 versions, so I'll have to research the part numbers, to determine the steel type. There are definitely a lot of 1095 versions still being sold. The only issue, is that I have to trust that a website is actually listing the correct part number.
 
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