Jeff Randall machete question

A

alex

Joined
Oct 12, 1998
Messages
1,003
Jeff,
In another thread you mentioned that you were trying to bring your own machete design to market. Since that has always been one of my favorite and most used forest tools how would your design differ from either the BKT patrol machete, Livesay RCM, or the Ontario GI types? What in your opinion is missing from those currently available on the market?
Thank you.



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Alex Penton
 
Hi Alex,

For me the Martindale "jungle machete #4", the one with the "humpback", is a perfect machete, I even think Jeff was very positive about it.

For me it's an ideal machete because it's cheap, it's not to big (cutting edge about 12") it can be sharped easy but also holds an edge well it has a decent rounded grip and finally the blade tapers from a very thin front-end to a "thick" back-end (grip).
This makes chopping with it easy and lightning fast with a good balance.

I used mine to chop into 6 foot lengths pieces of hard dried beechwood tree limbs varying in diameter between 2" to 6" because the use of a chainsaw was forbidden in the "water preservation area" and it performed perfectly.

Now I'm interested in Jeff's preferences
smile.gif


Best Scouting wishes from Holland,

Bagheera

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How thick is it? What was the binding like on that wood. I have never seen a machete that would be functional during heavy chopping as they just stick so badly in the wood. It is no so bad on soft woods like fresh pine, but on harder knotty wood, it can be more work to get them out than the actual chopping.

-Cliff
 
From my experience, there are some slight changes that could be made that would make a better machete. Most of these changes have been balked at by companies because the cost doesn't justify itself. In other words, most companies look at machetes as expendable tools that should be cheap. If I have said it once, I've said it a thousand times; machetes are the ultimate survival blade in my opinion. Personally I would pay good money for a well tuned machete instead of paying high prices for the ultimate sheath knife that will not out-perform the machete under most survival conditions. Sure there's a ton of good survival fixed blades out there, but machetes still rule the world from what I've seen. The Becker machete is damn close to being the perfect machete in my mind. The Martindale jungle tool is also in the running, but I still believe there's room for improvement. What improvement you say? I'll keep that to myself for now
smile.gif


Jeff

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Randall's Adventure & Training
jeff@jungletraining.com
 
Jeff,
I was afraid you might not want to reveal any sensitive info so I will just suffer along until you bring something to market. If you had to choose between the Livesay RCM and the Becker which would you take and why?

Bagheera, the Martindales look very nice but they are almost impossible to find here in the US, let alone handle. I contacted the factory in England but it seems like they only sell their machetes in case quantities.

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Alex Penton
 
I've seen the Martindale Jungle Knife advertised in Tactical Knives. The company advertising them, LO Ink, wants $49.95 for one, sheath not included. That seems a little high to me. Does anyone know of another source in the US? Anybody had any experience with LO Ink?

Paul
 
Alex,

If you know "certain persons" you can get Martindale machete's not by a case of 100 but also with 2 or 3 at a time
smile.gif
.
At least our scouting group was lucky and now we have some of them.

Best Scouting wishes from Holland,

Bagheera

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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by JeffRandall:
The Becker machete is damn close to being the perfect machete in my mind. The Martindale jungle tool is also in the running, but I still believe there's room for improvement.
Jeff
</font>
Click to expand...

Jeff, exactly which Becker tool do you like best? The "Machax"? Or the "Brute"? If neither, does a pic show up anywhere on the web?

http://www.camillusknives.com/bkt-knives.htm
 
We should remember that as with knives (and perhaps even more with big-knives), the "best" even "best for soft-wood jungle", "best for hardwood", etc. has to take the user into account. Frankly it doesn't matter what kind of wood I'm facing, I can only swing a machete up to a certain size/weight. I know that when I ask myself "what is the perfect machete for X application", the answer is always going to be something with a blade about 14" because I just can't swing an 18" machete all day unless its so narrow/thin as to be of questionable adaptability. I learned this from Cliff who sent me an 18" Barteaux to try. I've tried it, and while I'm not finished playing with it, I find that no matter what I cut I begin to tire and become unsafe very fast. By contrast, I can swing my Aki or even my Livesay RCM (which is almost as heavy as the Barteaux) all day because they are shorter.




[This message has been edited by matthew rapaport (edited 04-30-2001).]
 
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by JeffRandall:
I was talking about the Becker Patrol Machete, formerly called the Bush Hog.
I'll get [a photo] posted up here asap.
Jeff
</font>
Click to expand...

Much appreciated!
 
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