Costa Rica machetes

[Alberta Ed]

I visited my sister and brother-in-law in Costa Rica last week, up in the cloud forest in Monteverde. Machetes were in abundance, as you’d expect, lots of ‘em. Most appeared to be around 18”, made by Imacasa in El Salvador out of Solingen steel, with injection moulded polypropylene handles, mostly just plain black but a few with orange inserts. The blades were somewhat stiffer and thicker than most I've seen in North America, maybe just over 1/8”. Most sugar cane in the area is harvested by hand, and a lot of the small farms still use oxen to turn the crusher that squeezes the juice. It wasn’t unusual to see half a dozen or more machetes stuck underneath the roof rafters of the trapiches or sugar works where they squeeze the juice before they boil it down to raw sugar. For clearing chores, the machateros use longer machetes they call “twenty-sixers.” It was pretty impressive to see a couple of guys cutting an even swath in high grass. Noted a few of these longer machetes in handsome leather sheaths hanging from saddles. Another interesting machete, made by Corneto, had an offset handle, like a spatula, with a leaf-shaped blade. Gardeners use these for cutting out weeds and digging around plants, without barking their knuckles. A few guys carried shorter blades, about 12” or so, in leather sheaths on their belts. Didn’t see many folders on belts, or even in the stores (not that there were that many in Santa Elena). Around the farms, a large kitchen knife was as likely to be used as a machete.
I took along a couple of 110s since I didn’t feel like risking any of my good blades (gave one to my brother-in-law), and a Leatherman, which was a big hit with a some of local guys.
The only downside was on the last day when my wallet got lifted by a pick pocket on a public bus as I was getting off at the San Jose Airport. Crowded bus, ideal conditions for thieves, and I should have known better than to keep it in my hip pocket. But they didn’t get much; I’d already spent most of my cash.

 

[OldPhysics]

Thanks for the Southern tour. It's good to hear what's happening in the world of machetes...down where they are an indispensable tool. Those twenty-sixers sound pretty interesting!:thumbup: