Hunting and Survival Machete

Having chopped Creeping Johnnies for much of my teenage years, I prefer inexpensive machetes with a good blade steel. Some of the detriments you mentioned may be desirable features. For extensive cutting, you want a light, pliant blade. A machete isn't a chopping tool and if you need to chop small trees and such, get an Ontario Marine Raider. It has a stout blade that can fell small trees and make fire wood. It also can chop small amounts of weeds and vines, but for substantial amounts of clearing, you want a good pliant blade that can be easily sharpened in the field.

When buying a machete, handles are as important as blades. I like the Cold Steel Kukri machetes. They come with a good working blade but, frankly, you can get them sharper. In fact, you can make them wickedly sharp. One horrible problem is poison ivy and poison oak. The plants' oil, urushiol, is a vicious allergen that can easily get on the blades. And once those blisters appear, you'll wish you were dead. (I don't know which is worse, poison ivy or kidney stones.)

Cold Steel machete blades are made from 1055 carbon steel. I prefer cheaper pliant blades like that which can be easily sharpened by cheap carbide blade sharpeners you wouldn't want near your good blades.
 
A machete IS a chopper, but it functions by concentrating mass behind the cutting edge so thinner stock is, in most cases, an advantage providing the blade is sufficiently broad in the right places. For clearing light vegetative targets tip velocity is the name of the game so as light and fast is possible is best, though at the sacrifice of chopping performance on harder, woodier targets. The longer it is the better it will perform as well, due to the increased tip velocity. For general use I suggest an 18" blade. For extended chopping of dense foliage or underbrush, I suggest between an 18" and 24" blade. If chopping general mixed targets a blade with a moderate sweet spot and otherwise fairly even mass distribution (like a standard "Latin" pattern) will usually be best, but the most desired pattern will be tailored to the specific regional environment that it will be most used in, i.e. the ratio of light to medium to heavy targets. This, along with your personal preferences and price range, will help you arrive at the most suitable make and model for your purposes.

Condor is my favorite brand, followed by Imacasa (Condor's parent company), followed by Martindale, Tramontina, Hansa, and Cold Steel. Ontario makes some good ones, too, but they need more work than a Tramontina does out of the box, and cost a lot more. They're good steel with a good heat treatment, though, so they're worth putting the elbow grease into. Out of all of the above only Condor comes with a finished edge out of the box. All the others come with a rough grind on them to speed along the process of you sharpening them yourself. This is normal and expected with machetes. Cold Steel does have a few selected models (the Two-Handed Katana Machete, the Gladius Machete, and their upcoming 2012 models) that come factory sharpened, though.

There's a lot to this particular subject but I hope that explains a few things.
 
42 blades speaks the truth.

I am partial to Ontarios & have 2. An 18" sawback (sawback sucks) & a 12" D-handle. I have extensively modded the 12". Cut off the D-handle, made a 2 finger choil, 3-4" of jimping, fire steel flat spot on spine, & Bowied the tip & made it razor sharp. They hold a great edge & have a good heat treat. I have actually flexed the tip ends 3-4" about 1" off of center while batoning it through a piece of super hard twisted black walnut & it returned to perfectly straight.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top