Is the Machete getting more popular?

I love the machete.
It's a great tool fot the Spring,Summer and Autumn !
Good slicer,whittler and chopper.Splits wood good with a baton and a few wooden wedges !
For the winter I prefer an axe,because it makes splitting wood easier. :)
I like to have both an axe and a machete :)
 
tltt said:
The V-44 is not a Bowie, it is the Case Navy lifeboat machete Hornytoad shows in his post. The Collins #18 Bowie-Machete(and similar patterns) are not V-44's.

That myth started with Howard Cole in his series of books. D.E. Henry, who was a noted Collins and machete historian later corrected it in his book and an article in Knives '85 called "Will the real V-44 please stand up?".

Alas, once something makes it into the Cole's book, it is hard correct, and Cole died before he could correct it.

As to whether people are more receptive to machetes, yes, I think so. I believe it coincides a little with the internet based forums, before many folks would dismiss the machete as a weed whacker, and point toward axes and hatchets for real woods work. Now folks that were a little apprehensive toward the machete actually get to see that they are pretty useful things.

It also helps that more companies are willing to gamble on producing higher quality machetes.

:).
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Thank you for your reference. I couldn't remember where I read about the V44 not being the bowie type knife.
 
I think another contributing factor to the greater "rediscovery" of the machete by us northern folks is the explosion of non-latin-styled designs that have hit the market in the past few years. Lets face it--we like variety, and something that doesn't change with any relative frequency often bores us, regardless of how effective it is. With all of these new (and old) designs finally coming our way it makes for a lot of excitement! :D
 
H-Minus said:
Maybe is the influence of 12,000,000 illegal aliens from Central America.
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I think that belongs in the political forum or W&C. This discussion is about folks who are just discovering machetes. I think it's fairly safe to say that folks in Central America are already quite familiar with them. ;)
 
Well Joe, I probably wouldn't have even given a machete a thought if it wasn't for you and Jeff Randall and that whole thread in the RC forum. My wife was seriously unthrilled as a number of them started showing up in the mail last week. (I remained calm, and promptly blamed you).

So far I have a couple of Marbles, Gerber, couple of Tramontina's, and more on the way. I like them so far, great for clearing out the vines and creepers around my grape vine, and such. But as I have said in the past, while a lot of people I respect in these forums think a Machete is all you need in the bush, I want to see how they do in very cold weather.
 
The winter months are right around the corner--sounds like a good time to experiment! :D

Have fun with the new toys, dude. :cool:
 
I think machetes would be a lot more popular in the US if decent machetes were commonly available. The only machetes most folks ever see are the junky ones with garbage sheaths that you can buy in Wal Mart and the hardware stores- so they assume that's what machetes are. Why would people be interested in cheap, flimsy, stamped-metal machetes with horrible edges and crudely molded, uncomfortable handles? I guarantee if you put a nice machete in the average outdoorsman's hand, with a good edge on it, and have him hack at stuff a bit, a lightbulb is going to turn on above his head.
 
I used to think they were predominantly for more temperate climates and that northern winters and hardwoods would make short work of most machetes. However, I have found that to be untrue. Machetes have done quite well for me in all seasons. A good sharp machete is certainly capable of easily handling most fire/shelter building chores even with cold hard wood if you stick to mostly 2-3" diameter wood. I have been wholly impressed with the versatile of a good machete.

One thing that does bother me is the lack of quality sheaths though I suppose I could start making my own.
 
matthewdanger said:
I used to think they were predominantly for more temperate climates and that northern winters and hardwoods would make short work of most machetes. However, I have found that to be untrue. Machetes have done quite well for me in all seasons. A good sharp machete is certainly capable of easily handling most fire/shelter building chores even with cold hard wood if you stick to mostly 2-3" diameter wood. I have been wholly impressed with the versatile of a good machete.

One thing that does bother me is the lack of quality sheaths though I suppose I could start making my own.
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Condor. That's the only thing that needs to be said. They have good sheaths.
 
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