Summary: Easily the best do-it-all machete I own.
I'm a relative novice when it comes to machete-size blades and have been focusing primarily on wood-cutting oriented blades, mostly because I am hoping to retire to someplace out west where that is what I would need. However, it soon became apparent that for the next few years I'll want something with a somewhat different focus to deal with the mid-Atlantic environment where I currently live and where there is a lot of brush and other undergrowth. Although the parangs and goloks were doing an excellent job, I could use something that would handle brush and vines as well as wood, and which had a bit more reach than my other blades. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted in a blade; definite preferences on the the handle - something that would keep my hand from slipping off then end of the grip; and the sheath - I hate crappy sheaths. I had narrowed by list of options down to three knives and the handle design on the Condor Speed Machete tipped things in its favor. The fact that it was designed by Joe Flowers (aka Joezilla) was a definite plus.
The following comments are based on 3-4 hours' worth of work in the kitchen, woods, and in my yard cutting down and chopping up an apple tree.
Kitchen chores: This was just a tip of the hat to folks who point out that you can use a machete for everything. I normally only use a machete in the kitchen when my daughter brings a new boyfriend home for dinner. I peeled and cut up an apple, thin-sliced a grape, thin-sliced potatoes and onions, and thin-sliced and diced pepperoni. Most of the thin-slicing was done while holding the back of the knife out towards the tip. The speed machete did an excellent job at everything.
This is probably a good spot to mention that the edge grind blends nicely into the sides of the blade and is thin enough and broad enough to give good cutting performance without binding in cuts or without being so thin that it is prone to bending or chipping.
The handle: It fits my hand, which is just slightly smaller than a size large glove, very nicely. I use a fairly loose grip and the handle design let me know when my hand was starting to slide back. There are very slight ridges on the top and bottom of the handle from the molding process. It took me less than two minutes to trim these off with a knife. The polypropylene handle is lightly textured, enough to take the smoothness off, but not so much that it irritated my hand. From a subjective standpoint, this handle suited my personal tastes better than anything else I have used.
The sheath: Another excellent piece of Condor leatherwork. I had noted the comments in previous reviews that it was a bit tight when then widest section of the blade was entering or exiting the sheath. I found that flattening the mouth of the pouch slightly with my thumb and index finger when inserting or drawing the blade eliminated that problem. The handle seats down into the sheath a couple of inches and retention is excellent.
The blade: Smooth, light-gray finish with no tooling marks. The spine is nicely squared from the handle all the way to the tip and easily throws sparks from a firesteel. I did round the forward portion of the spine to make it more comfortable for drawknife-type work, but that is strictly a personal preference and not something I would expect or want from the factory. The edge grind was sharp, very consistent, burr-free, and didn't need any work before use. The factory edge did not roll or chip at all and was still sharp at the end of the session.
The wood used: Mixed hardwoods
Fuzz sticks: I stick the machete in a log and draw the wood back across the blade. The Speed Machete does a superb job making fuzz sticks.
Sparking a fire steel: The edges on the spine of the blade are nice and crisp and throw nice sparks.
Batoning: It performs exactly as one would expect from a blade of this thickness. It batons well, but needs to go a bit deeper into the wood than a thick blade before the piece splits off. I like it just the way it is.
Chopping: Superb performance, the best of any machete/parang/golok/bolo I've used, including some I think highly of. The blade bit deeply into everything I tried to cut, including some woods that had been a challenge for other respectable choppers. I did not experience any significant binding. I did not feel any need to smooth the corners of the edge bevel, which is something some folks claim can improve cutting performance. I assume they are right, and I have smoothed the transition on several big blades, but the transition on this machete is very good from the factory and the blade performed so well that I didn't see any point in messing with anything.
Brush cutting: Superb performance, and the balance and weight are such that you could work a long time without tiring.
Vines, limbs, and other stuff you want to get out of your way when you are walking through the woods: Perfection. Requires minimal effort, and just a important, is easy to control after it passes through the wood. If you want to see how this blade will perform, watch Joe Flowers, who designed this machete, in his Machete101 video where he demonstrates the snap cut. Joe gives the machete a little flick and whatever he hits drops to the ground. That is what this machete does.
Balance: Probably not the best word to describe this aspect of the performance, but I don't know what else to call it. The blade feels like it naturally rotates around a point just in front of the index finger when cutting stuff that is up in the air. It generates good blade speed and power, but it is all very controllable.
Semi-final comments: I thought this would probably be a pretty decent blade that would meet my need for a good general-purpose machete, but I did not expect to be this impressed with it. If other folks are considering it, I'd caution you to bear in mind that this is just my personal preference and you may respond to it differently. You may not go, "Oh, wow! My search for the perfect chopper has ended!" but I think you will find that it meets a good range of needs.
Final comments: I did compare the speed machete head-to-head with two other blades, the Condor Bushcraft Parang and the CRKT Halfachance Parang. The two parangs are a couple of my preferred general-purpose blades for my environment. They both did well and will continue to see plenty of use, but my son and I both preferred the Speed Machete. I will probably spend some time today comparing it to the Angelo B bolo that I previously posted about, but I already know that I prefer the Condor's handle and sheath, the Condor's out-of-the-box quality is far better than the Angleo B's, and I expect the Condor to be a bit more controllable in limbing, brush clearing, and other small stuff.
I'm a relative novice when it comes to machete-size blades and have been focusing primarily on wood-cutting oriented blades, mostly because I am hoping to retire to someplace out west where that is what I would need. However, it soon became apparent that for the next few years I'll want something with a somewhat different focus to deal with the mid-Atlantic environment where I currently live and where there is a lot of brush and other undergrowth. Although the parangs and goloks were doing an excellent job, I could use something that would handle brush and vines as well as wood, and which had a bit more reach than my other blades. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted in a blade; definite preferences on the the handle - something that would keep my hand from slipping off then end of the grip; and the sheath - I hate crappy sheaths. I had narrowed by list of options down to three knives and the handle design on the Condor Speed Machete tipped things in its favor. The fact that it was designed by Joe Flowers (aka Joezilla) was a definite plus.
The following comments are based on 3-4 hours' worth of work in the kitchen, woods, and in my yard cutting down and chopping up an apple tree.
Kitchen chores: This was just a tip of the hat to folks who point out that you can use a machete for everything. I normally only use a machete in the kitchen when my daughter brings a new boyfriend home for dinner. I peeled and cut up an apple, thin-sliced a grape, thin-sliced potatoes and onions, and thin-sliced and diced pepperoni. Most of the thin-slicing was done while holding the back of the knife out towards the tip. The speed machete did an excellent job at everything.
This is probably a good spot to mention that the edge grind blends nicely into the sides of the blade and is thin enough and broad enough to give good cutting performance without binding in cuts or without being so thin that it is prone to bending or chipping.
The handle: It fits my hand, which is just slightly smaller than a size large glove, very nicely. I use a fairly loose grip and the handle design let me know when my hand was starting to slide back. There are very slight ridges on the top and bottom of the handle from the molding process. It took me less than two minutes to trim these off with a knife. The polypropylene handle is lightly textured, enough to take the smoothness off, but not so much that it irritated my hand. From a subjective standpoint, this handle suited my personal tastes better than anything else I have used.
The sheath: Another excellent piece of Condor leatherwork. I had noted the comments in previous reviews that it was a bit tight when then widest section of the blade was entering or exiting the sheath. I found that flattening the mouth of the pouch slightly with my thumb and index finger when inserting or drawing the blade eliminated that problem. The handle seats down into the sheath a couple of inches and retention is excellent.
The blade: Smooth, light-gray finish with no tooling marks. The spine is nicely squared from the handle all the way to the tip and easily throws sparks from a firesteel. I did round the forward portion of the spine to make it more comfortable for drawknife-type work, but that is strictly a personal preference and not something I would expect or want from the factory. The edge grind was sharp, very consistent, burr-free, and didn't need any work before use. The factory edge did not roll or chip at all and was still sharp at the end of the session.
The wood used: Mixed hardwoods
Fuzz sticks: I stick the machete in a log and draw the wood back across the blade. The Speed Machete does a superb job making fuzz sticks.
Sparking a fire steel: The edges on the spine of the blade are nice and crisp and throw nice sparks.
Batoning: It performs exactly as one would expect from a blade of this thickness. It batons well, but needs to go a bit deeper into the wood than a thick blade before the piece splits off. I like it just the way it is.
Chopping: Superb performance, the best of any machete/parang/golok/bolo I've used, including some I think highly of. The blade bit deeply into everything I tried to cut, including some woods that had been a challenge for other respectable choppers. I did not experience any significant binding. I did not feel any need to smooth the corners of the edge bevel, which is something some folks claim can improve cutting performance. I assume they are right, and I have smoothed the transition on several big blades, but the transition on this machete is very good from the factory and the blade performed so well that I didn't see any point in messing with anything.
Brush cutting: Superb performance, and the balance and weight are such that you could work a long time without tiring.
Vines, limbs, and other stuff you want to get out of your way when you are walking through the woods: Perfection. Requires minimal effort, and just a important, is easy to control after it passes through the wood. If you want to see how this blade will perform, watch Joe Flowers, who designed this machete, in his Machete101 video where he demonstrates the snap cut. Joe gives the machete a little flick and whatever he hits drops to the ground. That is what this machete does.
Balance: Probably not the best word to describe this aspect of the performance, but I don't know what else to call it. The blade feels like it naturally rotates around a point just in front of the index finger when cutting stuff that is up in the air. It generates good blade speed and power, but it is all very controllable.
Semi-final comments: I thought this would probably be a pretty decent blade that would meet my need for a good general-purpose machete, but I did not expect to be this impressed with it. If other folks are considering it, I'd caution you to bear in mind that this is just my personal preference and you may respond to it differently. You may not go, "Oh, wow! My search for the perfect chopper has ended!" but I think you will find that it meets a good range of needs.
Final comments: I did compare the speed machete head-to-head with two other blades, the Condor Bushcraft Parang and the CRKT Halfachance Parang. The two parangs are a couple of my preferred general-purpose blades for my environment. They both did well and will continue to see plenty of use, but my son and I both preferred the Speed Machete. I will probably spend some time today comparing it to the Angelo B bolo that I previously posted about, but I already know that I prefer the Condor's handle and sheath, the Condor's out-of-the-box quality is far better than the Angleo B's, and I expect the Condor to be a bit more controllable in limbing, brush clearing, and other small stuff.