Blade for slicing banana stalk

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darthrabbi

Joined
Apr 2, 2025
Messages
5
Hi all,
I’m new to the forum so please be gentle :)
I’m looking for a blade that can cleanly slice through banana stalks/pseudostems.
Until now, I’ve been using a pruning saw, but it can be awkward given its length. When the plant is upright, the blade will cut into nearby banana daughter plants, and once I’ve cut it down and want to slice it up into smaller segments, the blade will catch on the ground.
The teeth also chew through the material and make a huge mess. So I think i should be looking for a non-serrated blade.
Any suggestions, especially of blades you have used for this purpose, would be very helpful.
Thank you!
 
Have you searched for "banana harvesting knife"? There seem to be knives specifically made to harvest bananas. Looking at those knives, I see that some hawkbill blades could work as well. Perhaps a Spyderco Tasman 2 or Spyderco Harpy might work?
 
There is a famous South African knifemaker Fred Burger who was also a Banana farmer. Fred made blades specifically for this purpose.

Fred is long retired but his son Trevor Burger is now also a well known maker and he may still be making these. You might like to find him on the book of face or IG and ask him.
 
Traditionally banana plantation knives have been mid-sized hawkbills or hawkbill machetes -

jj-cuchilleria-cuchillos-bananeros-gr.jpg


Hawkbill-Machete-M208.jpg
.

Amazon has cheaper banana knives, or there is a company called CRL / C R Laurence that offers stout ones. They can be found on Amazon too.

This video shows a banana harvesting using a gouge type knife, I haven't seen them for sale, but they show up in Thailand from time to time -

https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/13en1gk/a_tool_to_cut_banana_bunches_from_the_stem
.
 
darthrabbi said:
Hi all,
I’m new to the forum so please be gentle :)
I’m looking for a blade that can cleanly slice through banana stalks/pseudostems.
Until now, I’ve been using a pruning saw, but it can be awkward given its length. When the plant is upright, the blade will cut into nearby banana daughter plants, and once I’ve cut it down and want to slice it up into smaller segments, the blade will catch on the ground.
The teeth also chew through the material and make a huge mess. So I think i should be looking for a non-serrated blade.
Any suggestions, especially of blades you have used for this purpose, would be very helpful.
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Aloha!

You are looking for a tool to cut the whole plant down it seems.

I know what you mean by not wanting to hit the surrounding young starters.

A long blade needs a good swing, which can inadvertently go through the stalk and beyond, which is why you've been using a saw.

What is the average girth of your banana plants?
 
SharpBits said:
Have you searched for "banana harvesting knife"? There seem to be knives specifically made to harvest bananas. Looking at those knives, I see that some hawkbill blades could work as well. Perhaps a Spyderco Tasman 2 or Spyderco Harpy might work?
Click to expand...
Thank you but I’m not looking for a knife to harvest the bananas but to cut down the entire stalk post-harvest and then slice it up (it’s fairly thick).
 
MolokaiRider said:
Aloha!

You are looking for a tool to cut the whole plant down it seems.

I know what you mean by not wanting to hit the surrounding young starters.

A long blade needs a good swing, which can inadvertently go through the stalk and beyond, which is why you've been using a saw.

What is the average girth of your banana plants?
Click to expand...
You’ve got it exactly right. Harvesting is not an issue in my location because the banana plants don’t get crazy tall (low humidity). But taking down the whole plant post-harvest and then slicing it up to use as compost is a challenge. Circumference is roughly 60cm (24in). Thank you!
 
24" circumference, around 7.5" diameter?

The hawkbills would probably let you cut around the stem (kinda pull it through the stalk from different directions?) without swinging or sawing back and forth, and then maybe something else to split the stem and chop it down? Kinda like batoning through wood to get the thick stalk into a more easier to manage thickness and then chop it up? So a cheap hawkbill to cut the stalk down (kinda cut in a circle at the stem?) and then 5-8" chopper to split the stem down into quarters or so and then chop those sections down lengthwise? I am assuming the stems are somewhat soft even at that diameter?

What about splitting the stem from the top down into several pieces (like batoning a log) and then cutting those sections? Like quarter the stem from the top down to the ground and then cutting through those quarters?
 
I use a Fiskers bill hook machete for smaller stalks(2’ diameter). Maybe get something of that shape with a bigger cutter made? Works good with a”pull” stroke and then the other side choppes in shorter lengths. Good luck!
 
I use a fairly sharp machete it works fine. Heck on on the small ones I cut it with my Gerber FS2 just a few minutes ago actually.
 
beeinak said:
The locals where I grew up in Latin America used simple machetes for that task. Choke up on the blade for more precision (most of the folks leave the first few inches in front on the handle dull for this).
Click to expand...
I would also recommend a machete. A nice sharp machete swung properly would go right through em I would think. Now collateral damage may be an issue.
 
9 posts moved offline.
Keep the off topic commentary out of the discussion forums. It is welcome in Whine and Cheese.
 
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