Custom Machete

The "machete" in the posted video seems to look like a large chopping knife to me, not what would be typically classified as a machete. It's short and thick, providing more resistance to flexing and putting more supporting material behind the cutting edge. I'm not trying to argue or anything, but I personally wouldn't consider that a machete. :)

If you do get this piece made to your rather high specifications, I'd be very interested in seeing the results, as would many others on the board. It's not often that someone looks to drop that much money on a tool that already does the job so well. Since this is the internet and it's hard to discern attitudes and whatnot, I'm quite serious and not trying to pull your chain. I've simply NEVER seen a $2000 machete, nor would it be in my own personal tastes to commission such a thing, but I'm a machete nut and would love to see what one looked like.

I'm not sure why you feel the need to use such a sarcastic attitude with your posts--you've received a lot of sound advice from some very knowledgeable individuals. As the saying goes "you catch more flies with honey..." If you disagree with the suggestions given to you, that's fine. But responding with rudeness and sarcasm doesn't make one any friends.

For another potential piece, Rick Marchand (Magnussen on the forums here, and already mentioned earlier in this thread) of WilderTools is whipping up one hell of a custom machete for the Custom Machete Build-off that's going on now.
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Brush clearing and boar killin dont require the degree of hardness you are looking for, but you are welcome to have it.

Are you sure that your chef background isnt clouding your view? A higher degree of hardness performs exceptionally well in the kitchen.

In the bush... it doesn't so much. That is what the people of this thread are trying to point out.
 
Well, my background is probably clouding my judgement but I do know that some hard blades can stand up to serious use. I can completely understand why a softer blade would be very good for what I'm needing, it has just always been my experience that a softer blade doesnt hold an edge as long as a harder blade but there are trade offs to higher hardness. Believe me, I have googled every person that has been recomended and pj tomes is the only one I have come up with so far that can make a blade as big as I want.

42blades, I'm not trying to be a douche at all. I didnt give any attitude untill it was given to me first. I certainly dont want to start making trouble, I didnt start with the attitude, I just gave it back and I know I shouldnt have. Also, yes your right that is a little short to be called a machete but he has made longer ones than that and he also makes swords as well. From what I understand Murray Carter is that he is the only one outside of Japan that can actually import Tamahagane Steel from Hitachi steel itself. I have no idea if its true or not. I will definately be contacting Richard Marchand to see what he can do. Thanks 42 and I really wasnt try to start trouble.
 
Newbeliever said:
Well, my background is probably clouding my judgement but I do know that some hard blades can stand up to serious use. I can completely understand why a softer blade would be very good for what I'm needing, it has just always been my experience that a softer blade doesnt hold an edge as long as a harder blade but there are trade offs to higher hardness. Believe me, I have googled every person that has been recomended and pj tomes is the only one I have come up with so far that can make a blade as big as I want.

42blades, I'm not trying to be a douche at all. I didnt give any attitude untill it was given to me first. I certainly dont want to start making trouble, I didnt start with the attitude, I just gave it back and I know I shouldnt have. Also, yes your right that is a little short to be called a machete but he has made longer ones than that and he also makes swords as well. From what I understand Murray Carter is that he is the only one outside of Japan that can actually import Tamahagane Steel from Hitachi steel itself. I have no idea if its true or not. I will definately be contacting Richard Marchand to see what he can do. Thanks 42 and I really wasnt try to start trouble.
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I know that the production sword company CAS Hanwei uses tamahagane in several of their upper-range offerings, but I'm not sure if they produce it themselves or not. They're based in Dalian, China, so if they make it themselves then it's obviously not Japanese in origin. They're also doing experimental work in genuine wootz steel. They've got the process down (as of two years ago in fact) but are still playing around with the best way to bring it to market.

Just about anyone who does custom swords would probably be able to whip up a machete as well, since they'd have long enough forges and quench tanks to do a blade of that size.

Also, remember that RC hardness is just a number--other factors come into play when performance is considered, including presence and distribution of carbides, and grain size/structure. :)
 
For what its worth, I've batoned a knife that was around 64-65 HRc and had no chipping issues with it. It had a 5" blade, clip point, with a 1/16" spine. I'd be surprised if you find a machete, even a custom, in that hardness range. Then again, you never know. I smell a CPM S3V blade coming, or S5, whichever is easiest to get.
 
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Custom knife maker Matt Zeeb listed this as a Machete. Just under 20" overall, 14.5" blade, hand forged from spring steel, rosewood handle.

If you're interested, here's his email:

knifemakerzeeb@yahoo.com
 
I don't see why you want to dump $2000 into a machete that will probably be shattered with one bad swing at 60RC. Chefs knives cut food on a cutting board, very low impact. Machetes are designed to be high impact tanks of a tool. High Rockwell benefits a kitchen knife but makes a machete brittle. I would be worried to have a 6" field knife at 60RC, a 15" machete at 60RC spells disaster.
 
I think that an EDGE of 60 RC could be doable...but ONLY with a differential HT. If the spine was left softer it would help significantly with impact resistance. Even then, though, I'd say you'd have to be on the careful side when using it.

Joezilla (one of the W&SS subforum mods) is an even bigger machete nut than I am, has hundreds of machetes, and has picked up a lot of experience from his interactions with Central and South American machete users over the years. Even he has managed to take bad edge damage from time to time (hitting a bad knot in a fatwood stump for instance) but thanks to the softer HT of the typical machete the blade didn't chip--it just got dinged. A bad ding you can sharpen out, but you can't sharpen out a chip out of your edge the size of a nickel. ;)
 
I wanted a blade for the exact same reasons as you Newbeliever. Lived in Arkansas, big brush country with lots of hogs. Machetes were great for clearing brush but not stiff enough or had the profile to pierce with the point. I ended up with a sword from Angelsword made from S7 steel that cut almost as good as a machete on light brush, better on saplings and would go through a deer carcass like it wasn't even there. Problems with it were that it was heavier than a machete and bulkier.
Since then I go woods walking with a long handled hawk and a kukri or bowie. My reasoning as far as the hog defense was I'd only likely get one swing anyway and the hawk will absolutely penetrate and if the hog stayed after the first swing the shorter bowie would be more use closer in. The hawk also made a better woods tool for me.
 
Condor makes a machete that's, astutely enough, called the "Hog Sticker" ;):thumbup:

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Here's my lady with hers (it's the version with the knuckle bow):
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What do you need the machete for...? How long...? A $3 21" Brazilian machete and a triangular file will get you through the toughest rain forest on the planet. A $20 Gerber or similar, well, I'd let you carry that one.

A custom made machete..? What kind of blade are you after..? A rigid and heavy one like an Ontario or Gerber, or a pliant one like the good cheap stuff sold in Latin America for a few dollars..?

I guess what I'm thinking is that a pliant, thin machete works just fine in the tropical forest where you may use it for slashing your way thru the forest, or for chopping wood for a camp fire, or for splitting a deer or peccary, or for any other practical purpose. And two passes with the file and you can shave with it. I wonder if a custom knife maker would forge this type of blade or grind it from the expensive steels used for custom knives.

On the other hand, the heavy, rigid machetes sold in US knife and survival-type stores, well, they are not so practical in the jungle. At least that's most certainly my experience. They'll tire your arm and they are a pain to carry and sharpen. And they don't slice thru vines and branches like a regular machete does.

Just my $0.02.
 
mendezj said:
What do you need the machete for...? How long...? A $3 21" Brazilian machete and a triangular file will get you through the toughest rain forest on the planet. A $20 Gerber or similar, well, I'd let you carry that one.

A custom made machete..? What kind of blade are you after..? A rigid and heavy one like an Ontario or Gerber, or a pliant one like the good cheap stuff sold in Latin America for a few dollars..?

I guess what I'm thinking is that a pliant, thin machete works just fine in the tropical forest where you may use it for slashing your way thru the forest, or for chopping wood for a camp fire, or for splitting a deer or peccary, or for any other practical purpose. And two passes with the file and you can shave with it. I wonder if a custom knife maker would forge this type of blade or grind it from the expensive steels used for custom knives.

On the other hand, the heavy, rigid machetes sold in US knife and survival-type stores, well, they are not so practical in the jungle. At least that's most certainly my experience. They'll tire your arm and they are a pain to carry and sharpen. And they don't slice thru vines and branches like a regular machete does.

Just my $0.02.
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I'm not a fan of the Gerber or Ontario ones either. They do well for lots of folks, but they're not for me. :)
 
The more I read this thread..the more I wonder what this guy is up to....

dozens of fantastic blades have been offered up to this guy and its looking like he is just fishing for fun in my opinion....
 
Personally, I wouldn't consider the Japanese blade in the video a "machete." It doesn't seem to have any features of a machete outside of length, regardless of what the maker calls it. If that's a machete, then so is a Busse FBM, Bushwacker, Swamp Rat Waki, Ratweiler or a Scrap Yard Dogfather. Though even for a chopper blade, that Japanese blade is run pretty high in HRC. I'd be interested to know how it does when hitting a nail or a rock.
 
Kaizen1 said:
Personally, I wouldn't consider the Japanese blade in the video a "machete." It doesn't seem to have any features of a machete outside of length, regardless of what the maker calls it. If that's a machete, then so is a Busse FBM, Bushwacker, Swamp Rat Waki, Ratweiler or a Scrap Yard Dogfather. Though even for a chopper blade, that Japanese blade is run pretty high in HRC. I'd be interested to know how it does when hitting a nail or a rock.
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That's exactly it. A lower RC to handle high impact isn't so much important for when you hit what you want...it's more for when you DON'T hit what you want. :eek::p
 
You get a 62 hardened machete and you will get half moon shaped chunks out of it. I don't care who you are, at some point, the machete is going to hit something it isn't supposed to, be it knots, rocks, an evil tree, who knows. This is the reason that machetes are hardened much less than knives, they are meant to bend out. I have videos of people in South America putting these bends back together with a battery. Machetes are meant to slice and be sharpened easy. You get a 62 rockwell machete, you will most likely have to put some crazy triple bevel on it not to chip out. Sounds like you need some $700 sword my friend. Over 150 years of machete making and use can't be wrong. I think they would have figured it out by now if they should bump up the heat treat. But just to make sure, I've had the same machete made at the same with two different heat treats.... 54 and 60, and cracked through a frozen hemlock.




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Sure you might make one that doesn't chip at 62. Have fun resharpening it out in the field too. Meanwhile, the guy who uses the pavement/rock/whatever to sharpen his $4 machete has out chopped you 9 times over.
 
Joezilla said:
Sounds like you need some $700 sword my friend.
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And if it's a sword you end up looking for, I recommend John Lundemo of Odin Blades. He's not doing customer designs, but you can give him the kind of things you need it to do and your budget and he'll whip up some of the craziest sword-y goodness you ever did see. For 2k John can work miracles. :cool:
 
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