- Joined
- Aug 12, 2010
- Messages
- 16
I'm cross-posting this initial review I wrote a few days ago, figuring that some reader's here might be interested in a quick subjective take on Fiddleback's new 18 inch machete. My 'test' area isn't wilderness, but I've got enough foliage of different varieties on my hill to fairly well ascertain how well--or not--a given blade might work in the wilderness. Onwards.
...
A quick first impression.
The machete arrived earlier this week.
It's magnificent. Easily the finest machete I've ever seen.
All of Fiddleback's hallmark quality is apparent in this tool. Despite the fact that the handle is a basic micarta (I buy/use almost exclusively hardwoods), it's appealing aesthetically to me. It's 'no nonsense' quality seems apt for a machete, given how much time is spent swinging the thing through dense thickets, and, in my case, evil agave.
What's neat is that Andy's unique pin pattern and target lanyard ring are still there. Somehow, I wasn't expecting those details, and it's partly those details that make this a really high class tool.
The edge is very clean, straight, and very sharp. There's a nice maker's mark pressed in the blade as well--another touch of class.
In hand, it holds securely and confidently. I'm impressed with the grip of the Micarta. Lots of friction, which is necessary for something that's getting flung around like a longer machete.
Through fibrous, fleshy plants like agave (my initial motivation in buying this was to destroy an evil stand of agave) or yucca or aloe, the blade doesn't so much cut or slice as simply pass through. It's kind of magical. I've used a much, much heavier, more brutal 22" chopper in the past, and while it excels once you hit stem bases and root balls, it's just too much weight to wield while chopping down leaf after leaf after leaf, and it's considerable width makes it less effortless getting through those leaves. This machete doesn't bind like a big chopper. It just separates a leaf from its lower half, kind of like a very hot knife through warm butter. But with less friction.
I got the impression that most people are interested in the shorter machetes, as a kind of alternative bushcraft knife. For me, it's the 18" one all the way, for exactly the kinds of tasks machetes are best at. As I said, clearing dense thickets (think bougainvilla), aforementioned agave, etc. It's fast, light, and moves like a whip, and is nicely balanced. It is far less fatiguing than wielding a heavy chopper.
Pics!
What I'm trying to cut down. The machete gives you a sense of the scale of the job, and this stand of agave goes quite far back beyond what you can see:
I didn't take an 'after' shot, but those fresh green yucca sprouts were not long for this world. They practically flew off when chopped:
An interesting afterthought, even though the following picture is boring: after a ten or fifteen minute test run cutting down agave, I tried taking some quick horizontal swipes across a bunch of weeds coming up. These are very tender, soft, and very light stemmed annuals and grasses, the kind of things most tools just knock over or shred unless the edges are straight, fine, and sharp. The Fiddleback machete again just passed right on through. It was kind of like 'hair-popping,' just on a larger scale. The blade parted the plant tops from their roots, they popped gently up into the air, and floated down.
This was more just a test, as the weeds will just grow back; I won't be hacking them in the future. But after chopping through all that evil agave, I thought it would be neat to see how keen the edge was on such tender, light material.
Last parting shot:
...
A quick first impression.
The machete arrived earlier this week.
It's magnificent. Easily the finest machete I've ever seen.
All of Fiddleback's hallmark quality is apparent in this tool. Despite the fact that the handle is a basic micarta (I buy/use almost exclusively hardwoods), it's appealing aesthetically to me. It's 'no nonsense' quality seems apt for a machete, given how much time is spent swinging the thing through dense thickets, and, in my case, evil agave.
What's neat is that Andy's unique pin pattern and target lanyard ring are still there. Somehow, I wasn't expecting those details, and it's partly those details that make this a really high class tool.
The edge is very clean, straight, and very sharp. There's a nice maker's mark pressed in the blade as well--another touch of class.
In hand, it holds securely and confidently. I'm impressed with the grip of the Micarta. Lots of friction, which is necessary for something that's getting flung around like a longer machete.
Through fibrous, fleshy plants like agave (my initial motivation in buying this was to destroy an evil stand of agave) or yucca or aloe, the blade doesn't so much cut or slice as simply pass through. It's kind of magical. I've used a much, much heavier, more brutal 22" chopper in the past, and while it excels once you hit stem bases and root balls, it's just too much weight to wield while chopping down leaf after leaf after leaf, and it's considerable width makes it less effortless getting through those leaves. This machete doesn't bind like a big chopper. It just separates a leaf from its lower half, kind of like a very hot knife through warm butter. But with less friction.
I got the impression that most people are interested in the shorter machetes, as a kind of alternative bushcraft knife. For me, it's the 18" one all the way, for exactly the kinds of tasks machetes are best at. As I said, clearing dense thickets (think bougainvilla), aforementioned agave, etc. It's fast, light, and moves like a whip, and is nicely balanced. It is far less fatiguing than wielding a heavy chopper.
Pics!
What I'm trying to cut down. The machete gives you a sense of the scale of the job, and this stand of agave goes quite far back beyond what you can see:
I didn't take an 'after' shot, but those fresh green yucca sprouts were not long for this world. They practically flew off when chopped:
An interesting afterthought, even though the following picture is boring: after a ten or fifteen minute test run cutting down agave, I tried taking some quick horizontal swipes across a bunch of weeds coming up. These are very tender, soft, and very light stemmed annuals and grasses, the kind of things most tools just knock over or shred unless the edges are straight, fine, and sharp. The Fiddleback machete again just passed right on through. It was kind of like 'hair-popping,' just on a larger scale. The blade parted the plant tops from their roots, they popped gently up into the air, and floated down.
This was more just a test, as the weeds will just grow back; I won't be hacking them in the future. But after chopping through all that evil agave, I thought it would be neat to see how keen the edge was on such tender, light material.
Last parting shot:
