Machetes may be low end in the sword area but you can get a decent long edged blade for a small cost and i thought there should be a category about them.
I cut and pasted the following paragraph from an earlier post and will write more after it.
I'm new here..... so Hi Everyone!
I got hooked on a machete fetish buying spree over a year ago and have bought over 30 individual brands/types/styles/lengths. Actually about 45 total machetes if you count duplicates. I'll limit my comments to the Cold Steel for this thread. The Kukri is great in the shorter version, but the Magnum is longer and heavier and unless you have a super strong wrist, you won't be able to do a lot of cutting. I find (considering the thickness and weight of the blade) that the 18 inch Latin is about as long as you would want for actually doing work for any period of time. Some other brands have thinner blades so the length could be longer to use for work. I do have a 21" and 24" Latin and seriously the 24 may look inpressive but try swinging it 1 handed for a while. The CS All Terrain Chopper is a beast of a blade and needs the 2 hand handle it comes with.. would be impossible to use 1 handed. I'm not a small guy nor a giant.... 6ft 205 lb. The Cutlass is very nice... long blade, decent feel, and D handle... if you want a cheap single edge sword type weapon, it's nice. Their Bowie machete is too short to be much of a machete, but with a good edge is like a Bowie knife on steroids. My fav CS machete is the 2 handed Latin......choke up on the handle and it feels like an 18"... with 2 hands you can swing it like a baseball bat and probably chop a ball in 1/2. I sharpened the back side of the blade also so it's an awesome looking weapon. Be sure to get the 21" sheath with the shoulder strap... much better than trying to walk with something that long attached to your belt. I do like CS sheaths and use them for all types of brands. If you're going to put a razor edge on a machete and try to use a canvas sheath with maybe 2 or 3 rivets and play for the blade to move around... the blade will cut right through it. CS sheaths hold the blades fairly firm... maybe you won't get a 1/10th of a second draw time in an emergency but you won't get a trip to an emergency room to stitch your leg up if the blade goes through the sheath. If you're going to use a machete... swing sideways, NOT up and down... if you put an edge on it and it goes through something too easily, the blade may end up in your leg. Trust me on this one! Well that's my comments on CS machetes... except.. i have many other CS knives and they all come with very good edges, but the machetes need a little work to fix the "less than desirable" edge they come with.
I have bought various machetes made by Tramontina, Imacasa, Promedoca, Marbles, Collins, El Miura, Incolma, Barteaux, Truper, Mondial, and Corona. I will buy eventually but don't have yet anything by Ontario, Condor, or Esee. Everything i've bought with the exception of Marbles come with a poor edge that needs improved and i've put better edges on everything. Marbles comes with a pretty good edge and a couple of theirs i have left alone but a couple i went a little better. Some of these brands take an edge fairly easy and some never quite make a great edge. I have some newer Tramontina which are supposed to be 1070 steel and they get a decent edge, but i also have an older Tramontina( i'll guess 40+ yrs) that is painted red and has a sticker label(this is all original) that is much better steel than the newer stuff.
Barteaux & Sons, Oregon USA.... I have 2 D handle machetes by them, one was a 26" blade and 1 is 22". The 22" i got recently and haven't done anything with it yet. Bought both used on Ebay fairly cheap, The 26 has about a 3" wide blade and about 1/8 thick or more.... this blade was made for Sasquatch to swing... way too heavy. I cut it down to 18" and gave it a sharp point and is much easier to swing. The 22" i haven't got around to doing anything with it but will probably also cut the blade down to 18 also. I have read comments about Barteaux D handles lasting longer than Ontario's but i don't know since i don't own anything from Ontario yet.
Collins (Legitimus Collins) i've read about the company history but can't find anything about when the Collins/Nicholson machetes were first marked with both names. I know of Nicholson as an old time file and saw maker. Anyone have any info? As for the machetes... i don't think the newer ones compare to the older stuff.
At least 20+ yrs ago at a flea market i bought a knife from a guy for 10$..... he said it was an old cane knife, like for cutting sugar cane, but now i think it could be called a corn knife also. He said it was made from a car leaf spring that was straightened , but i doubt it was a car... maybe a horse buggy spring since it's thin and narrow. The blade is 17" long with about another 6 1/4 for the handle. I do believe it was some type of leaf spring since it's thinner at the tip and gets thicker and as it reaches the handle it starts getting thinnner again. The blade is only 1 1/4" wide so i kind of doubt it was a car... maybe a buggy... just a guess. It had no markings and a wood handle that was slightly loose. I dipped the handle repeatedly in Permatex Color Guard ..... a rubbery coating that shrinks as it dries. The coating is still intact and the handle is still firm. It has to be some type of spring steel........... it takes one heck of an edge and holds it very well!!!! This is by no means a heavy weight blade being about 3/16" thick as it reaches the handle and about 1/16 thick at the tip, but a 1" diameter live maple limb can be severed with a "ting" sound from the blade. I have lots of machetes but this one is maybe my fav or at least #2.... very light and with the heavy handle, very easy to move. I could take a pic but all you would see is a dark blade with a blue handle
Anyways, i would like to hear any comments about machetes and what you think about different brands. Maybe i can answer some questions but i'm sure there others out there with knowledge and if we share, we all know more.
I cut and pasted the following paragraph from an earlier post and will write more after it.
I'm new here..... so Hi Everyone!
I got hooked on a machete fetish buying spree over a year ago and have bought over 30 individual brands/types/styles/lengths. Actually about 45 total machetes if you count duplicates. I'll limit my comments to the Cold Steel for this thread. The Kukri is great in the shorter version, but the Magnum is longer and heavier and unless you have a super strong wrist, you won't be able to do a lot of cutting. I find (considering the thickness and weight of the blade) that the 18 inch Latin is about as long as you would want for actually doing work for any period of time. Some other brands have thinner blades so the length could be longer to use for work. I do have a 21" and 24" Latin and seriously the 24 may look inpressive but try swinging it 1 handed for a while. The CS All Terrain Chopper is a beast of a blade and needs the 2 hand handle it comes with.. would be impossible to use 1 handed. I'm not a small guy nor a giant.... 6ft 205 lb. The Cutlass is very nice... long blade, decent feel, and D handle... if you want a cheap single edge sword type weapon, it's nice. Their Bowie machete is too short to be much of a machete, but with a good edge is like a Bowie knife on steroids. My fav CS machete is the 2 handed Latin......choke up on the handle and it feels like an 18"... with 2 hands you can swing it like a baseball bat and probably chop a ball in 1/2. I sharpened the back side of the blade also so it's an awesome looking weapon. Be sure to get the 21" sheath with the shoulder strap... much better than trying to walk with something that long attached to your belt. I do like CS sheaths and use them for all types of brands. If you're going to put a razor edge on a machete and try to use a canvas sheath with maybe 2 or 3 rivets and play for the blade to move around... the blade will cut right through it. CS sheaths hold the blades fairly firm... maybe you won't get a 1/10th of a second draw time in an emergency but you won't get a trip to an emergency room to stitch your leg up if the blade goes through the sheath. If you're going to use a machete... swing sideways, NOT up and down... if you put an edge on it and it goes through something too easily, the blade may end up in your leg. Trust me on this one! Well that's my comments on CS machetes... except.. i have many other CS knives and they all come with very good edges, but the machetes need a little work to fix the "less than desirable" edge they come with.
I have bought various machetes made by Tramontina, Imacasa, Promedoca, Marbles, Collins, El Miura, Incolma, Barteaux, Truper, Mondial, and Corona. I will buy eventually but don't have yet anything by Ontario, Condor, or Esee. Everything i've bought with the exception of Marbles come with a poor edge that needs improved and i've put better edges on everything. Marbles comes with a pretty good edge and a couple of theirs i have left alone but a couple i went a little better. Some of these brands take an edge fairly easy and some never quite make a great edge. I have some newer Tramontina which are supposed to be 1070 steel and they get a decent edge, but i also have an older Tramontina( i'll guess 40+ yrs) that is painted red and has a sticker label(this is all original) that is much better steel than the newer stuff.
Barteaux & Sons, Oregon USA.... I have 2 D handle machetes by them, one was a 26" blade and 1 is 22". The 22" i got recently and haven't done anything with it yet. Bought both used on Ebay fairly cheap, The 26 has about a 3" wide blade and about 1/8 thick or more.... this blade was made for Sasquatch to swing... way too heavy. I cut it down to 18" and gave it a sharp point and is much easier to swing. The 22" i haven't got around to doing anything with it but will probably also cut the blade down to 18 also. I have read comments about Barteaux D handles lasting longer than Ontario's but i don't know since i don't own anything from Ontario yet.
Collins (Legitimus Collins) i've read about the company history but can't find anything about when the Collins/Nicholson machetes were first marked with both names. I know of Nicholson as an old time file and saw maker. Anyone have any info? As for the machetes... i don't think the newer ones compare to the older stuff.
At least 20+ yrs ago at a flea market i bought a knife from a guy for 10$..... he said it was an old cane knife, like for cutting sugar cane, but now i think it could be called a corn knife also. He said it was made from a car leaf spring that was straightened , but i doubt it was a car... maybe a horse buggy spring since it's thin and narrow. The blade is 17" long with about another 6 1/4 for the handle. I do believe it was some type of leaf spring since it's thinner at the tip and gets thicker and as it reaches the handle it starts getting thinnner again. The blade is only 1 1/4" wide so i kind of doubt it was a car... maybe a buggy... just a guess. It had no markings and a wood handle that was slightly loose. I dipped the handle repeatedly in Permatex Color Guard ..... a rubbery coating that shrinks as it dries. The coating is still intact and the handle is still firm. It has to be some type of spring steel........... it takes one heck of an edge and holds it very well!!!! This is by no means a heavy weight blade being about 3/16" thick as it reaches the handle and about 1/16 thick at the tip, but a 1" diameter live maple limb can be severed with a "ting" sound from the blade. I have lots of machetes but this one is maybe my fav or at least #2.... very light and with the heavy handle, very easy to move. I could take a pic but all you would see is a dark blade with a blue handle
Anyways, i would like to hear any comments about machetes and what you think about different brands. Maybe i can answer some questions but i'm sure there others out there with knowledge and if we share, we all know more.
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