Backpacking/Hiking machete questions

[FortyTwoBlades]

If you ask me, a machete is applicable in almost every geographic region. If you build familiarity with the tool you'll find it's useful for an astoundingly broad range of tasks. There's not much I CAN'T do with a machete. The KA-BAR above, however, is really more of a chopping knife than a proper machete.

 

[ocnLogan]

Yep, I feel like I have the "big knife" category fairly well covered, and was wanting to try something more machete like.

Great description of the difference between them 42. I now just kinda wonder which one of them feels more "machete like". I hear that to really "understand" what a machete is like, you should probably use a 16-18in one first. Well, both of these are WAY shorter than that but I wonder if it will be enough of an introduction into what machetes are all about.

It sounds to me like I might want to try out the svord first. Its still extremely light, but more choppy, and less likely to be broken under... "inexperienced" use. My nephew is in his late teens, but has just been introduced to "real" knives and their use. I feel like the Mora might be more likely to fail if handed off and used unsupervised. I don't think he is a "gorilla" by any means, but lets just say that so far his strength hasn't been finesse.

Also, browsing your site 42 I noticed the 14in ecosurvivor. Is that even worth comparing for this use case?

 

[OrdnanceBubbaUSMC]

Wonder how the Mora and Svord would compare with the CS Kukri Machete when it comes to wood.

 

[JV3]

JV3 - I really appreciate that link, that was perfect. Its nice to see the svord in action. Because I know you have experience with some Beckers and the Junglas, how would you say the svord chops in comparison. I'm talking ballpark is all. For instance, I know offhand that my BK2 chops roughly half as well as my BK9, so just something like that.

the junglas out-chops the bk-9 so i sold the 9...the ontario 12" cutlass machete out-chops the junglas so i sold the junglas...the svord is similar to the ontario but because it's narrower (blade height) it's less tiring to use. i'd sell the ontario but it's so cheap the shipping will eat the price...to follow 42blades' analogy, the ontario is an aluminum mountain bike whereas the svord is a full carbon fiber one

if you're looking to get a machete experience, don't rule out a tramontina 14" (get the special grade from 42blades) along with that svord...make your nephew carry both he's a young guy i'm sure he can handle it.

i have the 14" condor eco-survivor too...not too impressed with it since the handle is way too fat (i have average hands)...this coming from a guy who finds a bk-2 just the perfect size grip out of all the beckers.

Wonder how the Mora and Svord would compare with the CS Kukri Machete when it comes to wood.

the cs kukri will outchop just about anything short of an axe but that's the only thing good for it though imho. it's so tip heavy it's very tiring to use the lower part for feathersticks/fine wood work...a folding saw and a 4" knife is just so much more efficient in the same weight as the kukri.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Yep, I feel like I have the "big knife" category fairly well covered, and was wanting to try something more machete like.

Great description of the difference between them 42. I now just kinda wonder which one of them feels more "machete like". I hear that to really "understand" what a machete is like, you should probably use a 16-18in one first. Well, both of these are WAY shorter than that but I wonder if it will be enough of an introduction into what machetes are all about.

It sounds to me like I might want to try out the svord first. Its still extremely light, but more choppy, and less likely to be broken under... "inexperienced" use. My nephew is in his late teens, but has just been introduced to "real" knives and their use. I feel like the Mora might be more likely to fail if handed off and used unsupervised. I don't think he is a "gorilla" by any means, but lets just say that so far his strength hasn't been finesse.

Also, browsing your site 42 I noticed the 14in ecosurvivor. Is that even worth comparing for this use case?

I'd say that between the Svord and the Mora, the Svord is definitely the most like a classical machete in terms of its handling dynamics. The #333 is a very unusual animal, in part because it was originally designed and marketed as a knife for cutting rolls of fiberglass insulation. Without the regrind I give them the edge is actually so thin that it rolls badly cutting woody stemmed plants--it holds up great with the 30-degree included angle edge I put on them but the factory edge is probably around a minuscule 15-degree included angle! It feels like a knife in the hand, but with machete technique will bite VERY deep for its weight, and the heat treatment is very tough so it even holds up fine under batoning. But it definitely deserves the "UltraLight" designation, and there's not really anything else out there I've tried that feels like such a true knife/machete hybrid.

The 14" EcoSurvivor is a fine machete. Not sure if I have it in stock, though. If I do I think it's a "Grade B" one that's not up on the site yet. I'll have to check! Updating that page is amongst the many things on my "to-do" list for tomorrow. Labor Day is a day of labor for me.

Wonder how the Mora and Svord would compare with the CS Kukri Machete when it comes to wood.

With a proper edge ground on it the CS Kukri Machete would blow both of them out of the water easily. But I'd say that the Mora and Svord both have better edge retention, more comfortable handles, and they're MUCH better at handling knife-like work.