I have the 18" and 14" El Salvador, as you know. I haven't had reason to use mine extensively yet. I've done a little bit of trail clearance while hiking an overgrown trail or two, but I haven't used a machete up here as much as I did growing up back home in Hawaii. I can tell you that the condor machetes are the nicest machetes I've ever handled. Great worry-free handles (you might want to shape em down a little, I've been thinking about giving mine more of an oval cross-section), good balance, decent sheaths, and a good overall profile. In my opinion, I like a longer machete for clearing work (more reach, less effort), and the shorter ones are more useful for light chopping tasks. I would pick the relatively thicker blade in this short of a length, since it would be more likely to see shorter duration heavier work, rather than lengthy light and fast clearing work. Although, the Eco-lite is appealing for the orange handle and the uncoated blade. Btw, these machetes don't taper either, at least, my two don't. I'd say, go with the thicker El Salvador for a 14" blade. If it were longer (18" or above), then I'd definitely pick the Eco-Lite version.
My two did not come razor sharp out of the box. But they do come sharper than other new machete I've handled in the past (all have usually required some work with a file before use). As you may remember, it took Ban a little bit of work to tune up the edge on the 18" we did in his shop. It seems that you need to grind down a little to get to the harder stuff; the edge it ships with is a bit soft. I'm going to have Nate sharpen my 14" for me, since it doesn't have a good working edge on it yet. I tried to better the edge with a file, but I have a higher standard for sharpness now
Anyway, I guess it doesn't matter for you since you have a belt sander. The carbon does seem pretty tough though, judging from the times we've taken the machetes to 2x4s.
ETA:
If you want, you can borrow my 14" and 18" to try them out yourself before ordering your own. Just let me know :thumbup:
