Best machete/blade for sapling removal?

Kaizenator said:
The imacasa pata de cuche looks pretty much like my larger truper, so far it hasn't worked so well with the underbrush...
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I will put another vote in for the Imacassa. I purchased an 24" Imacasa Pata de Cuche from http://www.baryonyxknife.com and was very pleased with it. It has a distal taper (gets thinner towards the tip), which helps it whip through thin vegatation. The length saves my back and keeps me from getting too close to the thorny stuff. I also have a Tramantina 18" machete, but the Imacassa performs noticeably better.

Just my 2 cents.

PS. Be sure to put a good edge on it.
 
Dmuzzy said:
I will put another vote in for the Imacassa. I purchased an 24" Imacasa Pata de Cuche from http://www.baryonyxknife.com and was very pleased with it. It has a distal taper (gets thinner towards the tip), which helps it whip through thin vegatation. The length saves my back and keeps me from getting too close to the thorny stuff. I also have a Tramantina 18" machete, but the Imacassa performs noticeably better.

Just my 2 cents.

PS. Be sure to put a good edge on it.
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If you order from Baronyx you can get the "special grade" option for $10, and he puts a really nice re profiled edge on it for you. After sharpening my own machete I'd definitely say it's worth the extra $10.

How long is your truper?
 
KennyB said:
If you order from Baronyx you can get the "special grade" option for $10, and he puts a really nice re profiled edge on it for you. After sharpening my own machete I'd definitely say it's worth the extra $10.

How long is your truper?
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I actually have three, one is a standard 18", that's my beater and go to tool, I have another one that's sawback and has a weird hollow ground, good chopper for light stuff but the edge lasts close to nothing and finally a 26" one that I can't seem to get a working edge on.
 
Kaizenator said:
I actually have three, one is a standard 18", that's my beater and go to tool, I have another one that's sawback and has a weird hollow ground, good chopper for light stuff but the edge lasts close to nothing and finally a 26" one that I can't seem to get a working edge on.
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If you get it sharp enough to cut paper, the 26" one should work better than others. Have you tried it on the smaller stuff even with a poor edge?

I've noticed that if the stuff you're cutting is particularly harder wood, you need more of an acute angle to cut through it, where an obtuse one will cut it but kind of push it out of the way before it goes all the way through, just taking little scallops out of the edge of what you're swinging at.
 
jdk1 said:
If your machete won't take care of saplings, then there's something wrong. A thick chopper is not what you want. You need a thin, fast blade. I don't know about the machete you have, but the Imacasa has a distal taper which makes it very fast. If you use a wrist snap technique and your edge is sharp, the less than 1/2" saplings shouldn't stand a chance. As well, hit them at an angle instead of horizontal to the ground. This keeps the sapling from flexing. You'll likely smack the ground a few times, but a machete can handle this. I love khukuri, but this is not what most khukuri are made for. A khukuri machete can work well for this though. Good luck.
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Dude knows his craft. :D:thumbup:

On the other hand, i'm looking at the Imacasa Colima with a bigger hump and contacted 42blades for an order.
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Like the sharpened edge on both sides. The pronounced hump will add more weight for the sweet spot and
at 24" it is powerful.

I liked my Tram enough but i would like to try this. My Okapi Panga has been excellent too.
 
My longest machete is the Condor Viking. I wouldn't recommend it for the work you want to accomplish. As mentioned, you need a thin (but not too thin) blade that you can swing fast. I have a lot of choppers, I team those up with the Condor El Salvador now. Love that machete!

I recommended it to one of my clients for cleaning thin trees, a little brush, and miscl stuff around the edge of a big pond (about an acre) and she loves the El Salvador. Not many women are going to be chopping with a machete.
 
KennyB said:
If you get it sharp enough to cut paper, the 26" one should work better than others. Have you tried it on the smaller stuff even with a poor edge?

I've noticed that if the stuff you're cutting is particularly harder wood, you need more of an acute angle to cut through it, where an obtuse one will cut it but kind of push it out of the way before it goes all the way through, just taking little scallops out of the edge of what you're swinging at.
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I managed to get the top 8 inches or so paper cutting sharp, it took me like 2 hours with a file, whetstone and ceramic rod. I'll test it tomorrow to see how it performs, you nailed exactly how I feel the other machetes work with the saplings, they push them away and barely slice little pieces off of them.

To reprofile the whole machete I think I'll need a grinder or dremel the grind is too irregular and half the blade has no edge whatsoever
 
22-rimfire said:
My longest machete is the Condor Viking. I wouldn't recommend it for the work you want to accomplish. As mentioned, you need a thin (but not too thin) blade that you can swing fast. I have a lot of choppers, I team those up with the Condor El Salvador now. Love that machete!

I recommended it to one of my clients for cleaning thin trees, a little brush, and miscl stuff around the edge of a big pond (about an acre) and she loves the El Salvador. Not many women are going to be chopping with a machete.
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I saw the El Salvador machete, looks pretty neat, I'll see if I can score it at a reasonable price, local dealers usually charge me 2x msrp on blades due to the hassle of importing them
 
As others have mentioned, you'll want a relatively light machete. Another option would be a billhook. Falci makes a long-handled model that might do particularly well.
 


Joking, joking... It IS fun though...

Just get a South American produced machete and go to town. An Imacasa or Tramontina should do just fine.
 
AntDog said:


Joking, joking... It IS fun though...

Just get a South American produced machete and go to town. An Imacasa or Tramontina should do just fine.
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LMAO!

I can't wait for the weekend to test my reprofiled machete and see if it will cut the cake or not
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
As others have mentioned, you'll want a relatively light machete. Another option would be a billhook. Falci makes a long-handled model that might do particularly well.
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Do baryonyx sell across the border? I've never seen a machete of yours this side of the grande
 
Kaizenator said:
Do baryonyx sell across the border? I've never seen a machete of yours this side of the grande
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Yes--I do sell internationally. Canadian orders can be processed through the website for Priority Mail shipping, all other international shipping options or destinations are invoiced rather than going through the website directly. :)
 
Sorry for taking this long to update you guys :( too much work and not enough outdoors.

In the end I got a Kershaw camp 14 and seems to work as intended. I didn't want to buy another latino machete because the shipping was outrageous with fedex and I can't use regular USPS because its mexican counterpart (SEPOMEX) sucks bad.

Once I get a PO Box I'm going to get the recommended pata de cuche from baryonyx.

Thank you all for your time and advice
 
Woodsman pal is designed to be struck in the ground. I have used my Junglas to chop man oak saplings
 
Kaizenator said:
I have about 4000m2 of woods I'm trying to keep as natural as possible, with just some paths for easy access but saplings are killing me!

I have a couple of truper machetes but they won't bite on the tiny stuff, I can remove 1/2" or larger saplings no problem, also regular weed is no issue, the in-betweens are the ones beating me, anything smaller than half inch gets peeled off by the weedwhacker but won't fall and it's too damn springy for the machetes and just get glanced when trying to cut them.

The trees are mostly walnut, lightstrum, cat's claw and Canelo.

Some people recommended me a Pakistani kukri but I don't know how well it would work where I live, as the woods are more humid.
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I had a very similar issue with wild grape vines. The grape vines are very hard and basically free-hanging, speed and thin cross-section are what's needed, not mass. I went with a thin corn knife I found at my local ACE, and put a pretty good polish on the edge.

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Not pretty, but cheap and effective.
 
My Silky Nata is a MONSTER

You can't beat their saws either. They cut unbelievably. Like a silent chainsaw. You've got to use it to understand it
 
I'm beginning to think my large machete has a bad heat treatment since so many people are commenting on light thin, blades and I was having a hard time using mine: no edge retention, painful bounce back even after reprofiling it to a knife edge. It amazes me that in this time and age they still sell machetes with no bevel at all.

So far the camp 14 has worked well but I'm sure it is not the best option, I like its sharpness and edge retention but it wears you down since it weights about 1.5lb. Feeling like a pirate though >:)
 
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