If I were in the US I'd go with the Condor and mod it. That's said, someone posted here recently with a warning that the current production offering isn't as good as the original and lacks the distal taper. And in his opinion the current version was less pleasing to use and lacked the penetration of the original. Something like that.
My reasoning is as follows:
I know you use a saw for efficiency at cross grain cutting as do I. On that, I'm assuming that whilst you want a chopper, like me, a huge a mount of clout would be wasted on you because you'd use a saw rather than waste effort thrashing at big stuff. And that a huge amount of mass would just be an incumbrance. Yet a bit of weight forward is desirable for delivering energy in a compact format in a way regular skinny machetes can't. Right, so why do I love the Martindale #2 yet I'm recommending you find a good Condor. Double standard? Nah -
I must say that I've been tempted to snag a Condor a couple of times. The only reason being that I think the Condor handle is far better as stock than the one the #2 has. I don't bother now for a bunch of reasons, but the single biggest change I have ever made to a #2 to get it to give a great effortless swing was the addition of a big birds beak on the arse end of the handle. The Condor comes with that so no work required on your part there.
The #2 requires a bunch of work to profile the blade to what I consider great performance. If you don't have power tools or the patience for that you'll settle and it'll piss you off. You'll be able to mash wood but you'll never get good deep penetration and whilst it will cut through green flimsy stuff if it is sharp it'll never whip through brambles. It'll just beat them out the way. Not good enough. A genuine [* more on this later] #2 ships with what looks like a Scandi grind. It needs a huge amount of relief at the shoulder to get it to cut through stuff properly. Even if you keep the very edge angle the same as they ship with dumping all that shoulder is paramount. That said, I'm very confident I'd be modifying this aspect if I ever bother to explore the Condor, but I'm absolutely certain about the #2. I've done enough of them to bet a finger.
For my needs the #2 has the advantage in that is much lighter. That said, the Condor has a section of blade that is totally useless to me. I think that Condor tip has its uses for path clearing at ground level but to me that is irrelevant. I suspect that may well be the case for you. Cutting it off has the advantages of reducing weight, making the tool more compact, giving you a useful point, and I dare say makes the knife a good deal quicker in the hand because of the balance change. I'd do this -
Last, and rounding out this bit, although I can't remember the exacts I think the Condor is run harder than the #2. Whether that's a blessing or curse debatable. As a knife that strikes me as better for edge holding, but I've never had a problem with the edge holding of the #2. So I can just enjoy the enhanced toughness of it.
Bang for the buck - Given both would just be platforms for me to mod, and that the Condor ships with a better handle, and that I could get a
Condor $10 cheaper in the US than I could a
#2, the Condor wins.
Caveats. I've flagged
this up before as suspicious.
1] The grind looks wrong for a genuine NIB #2.
2] And what's that with the price? I can't get them new here cheaper than £25 GBP - $38.22 USD from anywhere here. Not been able to for quite a while. I might be lucky and pick up a battered one in a surplus store for less than that but
achtung!!!. Somehow those folk are getting them from England and selling them for $29.95 USD - £19.50 GBP. Till someone provides me with evidence to the contrary I'm calling that a rat.
