I live in the south right next to a 103 acre swamp, so i'm thinking machete (which i'm sure i will end up giving a big knife a try eventually) I usually cut smaller stuff like oak and willow saplings anywhere from half inch to 4 inch.
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Large knives vs short machetes
- Thread starter B.B.M
- Start date
I live in the south right next to a 103 acre swamp, so i'm thinking machete (which i'm sure i will end up giving a big knife a try eventually) I usually cut smaller stuff like oak and willow saplings anywhere from half inch to 4 inch.
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BBM, Condor's stainless is strong enough to baton. The Jungle Bowie from Marbles was kind of disappointing, the tip is too light to be really efficient as a chopper. I think you can try a 10 inch Belloto machete from machete specialists for maybe 12 dollars, that may be worth your while.
I kinda had my worries about the jungle bowie's chopping capability's, I just checked out the belloto the 10 inch looks awesome.
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- Sep 24, 2008
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Condor's stainless will hold up to just about anything. I've used a Condor bolo that is stainless a ton since I got it and it hasn't had any troubles yet.
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Never fear about Condor's stainless. It holds up great under hard use.
To my mind a chopping knife excels at chopping wood while maintaing a short overall length. If you find yourself needing a compact chopper for wood while being able to handle knife tasks then a chopping knife will likely do well for you. If you plan on cutting any grasses, woody plants, brambles, or thin limbs and brush then ashort machete will likely to better for you. If you need it to handle all of the above, but length is not a limiting factor for you, then a longer, heavier machete will be the best choice of the three.
The advantage of a chopping knife is that the added weight puts chopping ability back into a short (12" or less) blade, allowing it to still bite deep. However, this is offset somewhat by the additional work the tool has to do to displace extra material during the cut. A thinner, wider blade will put the mass behind the cutting edge where it can best be put to work. A longer blade also results in greater chopping ability due to the mass being set further out on the blade, as well as faster tip velocity which is handy in cutting lighter targets.
Thus in short lengths a chopping knife trumps a machete for hard targets, while a machete trumps the chopping knife on lighter targets. A long machete will trump either in all areas save batoning, which a chopping knife will still be better at because of its thicker geometry. This is a generalization, of course, and results may vary depending on the exact characteristics of the pieces being compared.
To my mind a chopping knife excels at chopping wood while maintaing a short overall length. If you find yourself needing a compact chopper for wood while being able to handle knife tasks then a chopping knife will likely do well for you. If you plan on cutting any grasses, woody plants, brambles, or thin limbs and brush then ashort machete will likely to better for you. If you need it to handle all of the above, but length is not a limiting factor for you, then a longer, heavier machete will be the best choice of the three.
The advantage of a chopping knife is that the added weight puts chopping ability back into a short (12" or less) blade, allowing it to still bite deep. However, this is offset somewhat by the additional work the tool has to do to displace extra material during the cut. A thinner, wider blade will put the mass behind the cutting edge where it can best be put to work. A longer blade also results in greater chopping ability due to the mass being set further out on the blade, as well as faster tip velocity which is handy in cutting lighter targets.
Thus in short lengths a chopping knife trumps a machete for hard targets, while a machete trumps the chopping knife on lighter targets. A long machete will trump either in all areas save batoning, which a chopping knife will still be better at because of its thicker geometry. This is a generalization, of course, and results may vary depending on the exact characteristics of the pieces being compared.
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Hi guys, I've been using my short 12-13 inch machete's a lot, and i have been wanting something with around a 10inch blade and was wondering how the larger knives like the bk9, condor hudson bay, condor kumunga ka-bar zombie line....etc compare to the shorter machetes? do they chop as well as a short machete? how about the finer cutting task? I cut a lot of saplings and brushy stuff but also do most of my battoing with my machetes. but i have never used a large knife, the largest knife i have used is my tracker which really does not have that long of a blade. I was wondering if the weight of the larger knives would be a benefit or if they would lose "bite" compared to the machetes?
Thanks for any info
Tramontina 10" long blade machete.
Tramontina 10" long blade machete.
Great post, love the pics!! Just a few things I noticed either you carry nail polish remover and cook with pink nail polish, then remove it, or you brought a friend to cook for you
I also really like that you cook and use the machete with the sticker still on that bad boy. While you can do a feather stick with a machete it can be frustrating to get it fine enough to catch a spark. Always nice to have a small pocket knife, or fixed blade for the fine detail. Looks like fun though keep it up. On the original post, I would agree with some of the others that it depends on what you are doing with it. A machete can baton pretty well in my experience, but if youre looking for "bite" and chopping, a slightly heavier blade will do a much better job. A 10" blade can be very useful and perform any number of jobs around camp. Personally, I always carry a small fixed blade (EESE 3, or one that I made personally) for the fine jobs like food prep, fire starting, carving, and that sort of thing.
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A good machete professionally sharpened is hard to beat. Especially for the price. I like kukri's