Machete/Hatchet Recommendations

[lambertiana]

If you're doing this for a living I think the answer will be a bit different to someone who just does this kind of thing occasionally. If it was me, doing this as full time work, I would carry a folding saw for the big stuff, and a smaller chopping knife for the light stuff. The tools should all be as light as possible because after doing it all day for four days straight your arm will be ready to fall off. So the knife might be .15" thick at most, and 9 or 10" long at most. I've talked to someone who used to limb trees for a living, and he just laughed when I showed him some of my (smaller) chopping knives - he said "much lighter than that".

I agree with this. Get a good chopping tool, be it a large chopping knife, machete, bolo, or hatchet (you may want to look at Estwing hatchets). And a good folding saw. Manzanita is too springy for effective chopping. For a saw, get a folding Silky saw of the size that suits you best. You will not find a better saw anywhere. And with a Silky you will cut through the thicker stuff faster than you could chop it.

 

[Evalute]

Just wanted to give you guys an update. I've been pouring over all the info you guys have given me and looked at other forums. And I've decided on a Condor parang at least for now. I've just started to get into the wide world of steels now and will be taking a chemistry course soon to better understand what is going on. And hopefully with that as a knowledge base I'll be able to get a better knife in the future.

I wanted to say a special thank you to Currawong & lambertiana for the suggestion. I've picked myself up a folding saw for springy stuff. I would not have thought of that before hand.

I wanted to be able to thank you all again and I'll probably be making a new thread showing my journey. So be sure to look out for it when it comes.

Evalute

 

[Kailash Blades]

I think you made a great choice going for a parang and it'll be very well suited to what you're going to be using it for at a great pricepoint. I strongly support the combo of a folding saw with a shorter chopper. As a one tool option if the parang ends up struggling with light flexible stuff then having something with a recurve could help a lot to snag and bite into it. Billhooks are a great move, but are on the shorter and chunkier side. A longer, slender khukuri can outchop a parang while still having the recurved bite and the tip speed required for light, springy and flexible brush. A compact workhorse chitlange here for reference.