Input on Machete gift for my Dad's B-Day

J

Jeephat

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Aug 11, 2010
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I am going to make my dad a machete for his birthday. He lives in Hawaii and does a fair amount of yard work/garden work with a POS Machete. I wanted to make him a better one.

I was planning on using macarta for the handle. I was thinking with the tropical air it might be good to use SS, but most of the customs I see on here are not SS. What are your thoughts?
 
I think Micarta is a good handle choice. I'm sure they're out there, but don't recall seeing a SS machete. Generally they are carbon steel heat treated to a fairly low hardness (thus being "tough", rather than "hard") so they can flex and absorb blows rather than crack or break. This also makes them easily sharpened in the field w/a stone or file. I would think some 5100 or 1080 series high carbon steel would be perfect--inexpensive and easy/forgiving to heat treat.
 
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Condor makes some excellent stainless models--they're the only stainless ones I trust.
 
yeah that is one of the problems is that I would have to send it out for HT if I did SS. I have a ton of 5160 to use but its .25 in so I would be removing considerable material.
 
If you do stainless, you really need to micromanage the heat treat. High Carbon is used for most custom machetes because it tends to take abuse easier (and longer), and is very easy to maintain the working edge. Alot of stainless steels are just too brittle-the edge chips or the blade will break... I'm not saying this is true of all machetes-Condor does a superb job on their 420HC blades, and they now offer them with Micarta grips.
 
1/8th is PLENTY thick for battoning both of those steels. Good choice-you may want to look into blade finishes and coatings, or just send him a silicone rag or bottle of oil or brichwood casey gunstock wax for rust inhibition. I think the thickest I'd go is .15. Alot of guys use Gunkote, Cerakote etc. for coating blades. Aerosol spray-on finish that's much more durable than typical spraypaint. Just some ideas offhand...
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1150/Product/GUN_KOTE_trade__OVEN_CURE__GUN_FINISH
 
Yeah I have been looking into Duracoat as well. I like the Aerosol can though saves the airbrushing (but it would be an excuse to buy one).. hmm...
 
Jeephat said:
I think I will go with Carbon steel. I'm sure Condor makes a great machete, but the idea is to make it for him ;). I was looking at http://www.admiralsteel.com/products/blades.html HR 1075/1080 trying to decide between 1/8th or 3/16ths. I don't think he would be doing much batoning with it.. but who knows.
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Oh I realize you were looking at making it--I meant more to mention that stainless CAN be done. Yeah--you'd need to send it out for HT.
 
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