cold steel machetes

deltablade

deltablade

Gold Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2006
Messages
2,049
does anyone have experience with the cold steel machetes? 1055 carbon steel, 1/8 inch thickness
 
i love them. you can find most of them for under $25 and they are extremely tough for only an 3mm blade. they come with a reletivly dull utility edge but can be made shaving sharp in a few minute on a belt sander. Noss did a test on a kukri machete at knifetests.com
 
out of the box edge is terrible. they're worth the money if you're willing to spend a little time to put a decent edge on them.
 
Yeah, out of the box, they're dull as dirt and they have a sticker that cannot be removed. If you can sharpen it with one of those carbide sharpeners and live with the horrible sticker on the side, go with it. Personally, I'd boycott the damn things until CS deep-sixed the sticker and gave them an edge.

Sticker.jpg


The sticker is ugly as hell and can't be removed. It's water
resistant and probably glows in the dark. Uuuugh.
 
I used lighter fluid to remove the sticker.

As for the "edge" I have found most out of the box machetes to be lacking.

Considering the asking price (CS), I don't have an issue doing a bit of sharpening.

Their sheaths (I have a Kukri) leave a lot to be desired; pretty flimsy.

While not a big fan of CS products (mid 80's stuff was excellent), their machetes seem to hold up quite well once they are correctly sharpened.
 
WD-40 removes most stickers as does Goo Gone, I've used both on my motorcycles to remove those unsightly safety stickers, no harm to paint.
 
Have you tried the Tramontinas? Good stuff for $6. They's still be a good deal at twice the price. Mine came with better grinds and wood to metal fit than both of my Martindales (which cost 4-5 times what the Trams run).

Frank
 
I bought a CS Magnum Kukhri this summer, it seems solid but i haven't really used it much yet though.
I managed to peel the sticker off no problem just using my fingers.
Cleaned off the little bit of glue that was left with some lighter fluid.
So they are made in South Africa? (thats what the sticker says)
 
I have the panga and used it for throwing for a while. Dont do that. It will warp the blade, and I havent been able to take out the twist yet. I sharpened it on a belt sander, following Jerry Hossom's directions for a polished edge. I stopped at 320 grit and went to the leather belt. I managed to cut a 1.25" oak dowel with no damage or edge rolling.
 
I honestly don't think the sticker is all that hard to remove but I do agree they come with terribly ugly edge.
 
I have to confess that I never bothered to even try to scrape the stickers off of any of mine.:foot:

I just picked up a 24" Latin and a 12" Barong. The Latin is exactly what I was wanting it to be; just a touch longer and lighter than my 22" Ontario so that I could use it to trim low tree branches and weeds without stretching or bending as much.

Not sure what the Barong is going to be good for yet though.
 
Man,I had the chance to hold the cold steel barong machete in 3mm thickness and all I can say is it heavy.When compared to my bolo machete.
 
i own 3 cs heavies--dissasembled a couch with one. sharpen w/file or dremel and large crock stik. its one of those things u use when you dont wanna skrew up a good kuk

at 11 bux not a bad deal I wanna try the mag kuk 4 comparison
 
CS South African made machetes are very durable and functional machetes once you put an edge on them (the factory "edges" are about as bad as they get).


I didn't care for the handle on the Panga, but I like the ones on the Latin and the Kukri machetes.
 
I used my 24" Latin and 12" Barong a lot this past weekend and they performed pretty much as expected. The Latin seems softer than my Ontario, and although it worked great on bamboo and vines it blunted pretty quickly on semi-seasoned wood (trees that were cut down about 2 weeks ago). The Barong on the other hand eats wood. It proved to be very handy for trimming all the little branches off of bigger pieces so that they could be more easily cut and stacked.
 
Had a Cold Steel Panga. Sharpened it up and it worked well. Only problem was handle is too big for me. I have average to small hands and the handle was too big in diameter for comfort. Gave it to my son-in-law and he likes it very much.

Natural-Outlaw
 
I think they are a SUPER DEAL and great fun to play with.
I have about half a dozen.
--ho
 
my only experience with a CS machete is the Heavy Machete and it was absolutely horrible. as everyone mentioned it came duller than most shovels, this was not a problem for me, i sharpened it up and went to work on some relatively soft pine. within minutes the edge was dented and rolled. i threw it back in the box and dug out my rusted old ontario that i've had for a dozen years and it did the job 100x better than the CS. i got a new ontario since then and couldn't be happier.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top