Machete - Please help!

J

Josh Musgrave

Joined
Sep 12, 2016
Messages
6
First off, I'd like to say this is my first post. I have never made a knife, I have owned many but I am relatively without any knowledge of blades. Any help you, as members can provide be it experienced or inexperienced will be greatly appreciated. If I have posted this in the wrong area, feel free to direct me elsewhere. Let's begin.

Here is my issue. My father, shortly before he passed away had given me a Machete. It is an OKC. He had found it in his travels as a trucker and it was and still is partially in rough shape. I have removed the handle scales and lightly sanded the rust from the blade and tang. The plastic (I'm assuming) scales broke when pressure was applied but I had planned to make new ones from a yet-to-be-chosen wood. The blade is where my issue lies. Whomever owned this had tried to sharpen it and has done a serious number on the edge. It is narrower in the middle than the tip and toward the handle. What is my best shot at correcting this issue. It doesn't need to be overly functional as it is more sentimental than anything else.

As soon as I figure out how to upload a picture I will include one.

Thank you,

Josh
 
Hey welcome to the forums! Glad you dropped by to ask the question here; we're mostly a pretty friendly bunch.

It will be easier for people to make suggestions if we can see the machete. It's easy to post pictures; just use a service like imgur and link it in :) there are specific instructions around somewhere (I'll check the tech support stickies).


...aaand here ya go

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1394713-How-do-I-post-pictures-from-a
 
VcXNMOT.jpg

Thanks for the info Chris! Here it is.
 
What I'll do:
- take a straight edge(ruler or similar) and a permanent marker
- put the ruler on the lower point of the defect and draw a line keeping the maximum steel you can, you'll have to choose the belly or the heel. In a machete I'd keep the belly
- with a flat file or a power grinder grind down to the line, don't get the steel finger scorching hot.
- once you have the profile where you want you'll have to regrind the bevels, one way is elevating the knife over a block on top of a work table and use the edge of the table as a guide for the file to keep the angle consistent.
Hope it helps


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk
 
Welcome! So, I am not saying you can't do this yourself, but because of the bevel, it will be a bunch of work to "clean" this up and get everything looking somewhat level and correct. If it was me, and the machete would be more for sentimental display, rather than hard use, I would send it to one of the members of this forum who do regrinds/ modifications. They could make it look amazing and then you could put whatever handle on it you want and display it proudly.
Bruce
 
How bad an idea would it be to file the bevels onto the concave area and accept the recurved shape?
 
bralexander said:
Welcome! So, I am not saying you can't do this yourself, but because of the bevel, it will be a bunch of work to "clean" this up and get everything looking somewhat level and correct. If it was me, and the machete would be more for sentimental display, rather than hard use, I would send it to one of the members of this forum who do regrinds/ modifications. They could make it look amazing and then you could put whatever handle on it you want and display it proudly.
Bruce
Click to expand...

Oh, let's be honest with ourselves. I would probably make it worse hahaha.
 
I put a copy of the pic into 'paint' and tried to draw a straight line showing the correction. It looks like a ton of work for not much payoff. Your best bet might be to chop it short, the new belly starting at the beginning of the recurve portion.

I recently picked up a Tramontina 18" Latin pattern for $14 - unless you already have everything you need to fix your Ontario, it will cost more to repair than to replace.

Other option might be to cut a long gentle recurve into it, but again is a lot of work for what comes out the other end.

VcXNMOT_zpsb6yxjotc.jpg
 
I suppose, even hanging on to the sentimental value, I could make a large knife as opposed to a machete. That seems like the best option now that you fine folks have given your input. I have no option to forge so it would be simple grinding and filing and sharpening.
 
Even after you cut it down, a 12-14'' bladed machete is still plenty capable. Most machete manufacturers (tramontina, imacasa, etc) make machetes in that size anyways. Some people even cut down perfectly fine machetes and make knives from the cut off piece.
 
I did not know that! Thanks very much for the info guys. Is there a technical section on this forum that may provide me ideas or help on how to give it a new bevel once it is done?
 
What tools do you have at your disposal? A belt grinder really makes the job magnitudes faster and easier for jobs like this, but as long as you don't mind putting in a few hours of work you can do it with manual tools, too.
 
Josh,

What I can see on your machete is that it have been in use for sometime, probebly a long time. On the edge there is a "hitting point" that have been sharpened a lot of times, so many times that the edge on this point now are recurved. That make this machete worth something nice, it have been a mans tool for many hours, days, weeks and years and it have help this man to food, shelter and, perhaps, a better life, perhaps a family also?

If it was my machete, I would hang it on a wall where I can see it. It will give me the satisfaction that I do not need it to get food and shelter - and I can show the erlier owner my respect now and then when I look at it :)

Your machete is a small piece of history - and probebly a big peice of history for the man who lost it...

Thomas
 
An evening in the shop with a few cold beverages and a couple of good files and you will have a good tool with years of service life left in it. You will have to decide if you want to make it straight or a recurve edge, and that is the easy part, doing all the curves with hand tools on the handle will take 3-4 times longer than fixing the edge.

IMG_1516%20copy.jpg
 
EdgePal said:
Josh,

What I can see on your machete is that it have been in use for sometime, probebly a long time. On the edge there is a "hitting point" that have been sharpened a lot of times, so many times that the edge on this point now are recurved. That make this machete worth something nice, it have been a mans tool for many hours, days, weeks and years and it have help this man to food, shelter and, perhaps, a better life, perhaps a family also?

If it was my machete, I would hang it on a wall where I can see it. It will give me the satisfaction that I do not need it to get food and shelter - and I can show the erlier owner my respect now and then when I look at it :)

Your machete is a small piece of history - and probebly a big peice of history for the man who lost it...

Thomas
Click to expand...
:thumbup:
 
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