Machete Recommendations

drj211

drj211

Gold Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2008
Messages
1,270
Hi All,

I have several acres of high and dry pine forest in North Florida that my kids have decided to ride their dirt bikes through regularly. The problem is that we have several kinds of nasty vines that reach out and grab you as you go by. I need some recommendations for a property maintaince machete that will last longer and hold an edge better than the current hardware store POS that I have. I don't care if it is factory or custom, but would prefer something that can be used hard and will last with minimal mantainance. Most of the cutting will be vines and small branch removal. Thanks.
 
For vines and thin stuff, you probably want something light. An ESEE Lite machete or a Condor Eco-lite 18 incher would be a good choice, methinks.
 
I suggest the Condor Viking. Good reach, forward weight for good limb chopping ability, and the sharpened partial back edge is a handy hook for the vines.
 
Have had a martindale golok for several years and have been pleased with it. It has been severely abused and still performs admirably...came with a pretty nice leather sheath to boot.
 
caine said:
ESEE Lite machete or a Condor Eco-lite 18 incher i agree
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Either of those would do a fine job, but I find a hook really helps with the light stuff--especially if it's still going to have good chopping ability for the branches since that tends to slow tip velocity--the name of the game for cutting light targets. :)
 
Duane,

I cant see you being happy with a Martindate Golok going after acres of vines.

Will you be able to sharpen a convex edge on the machete or are you going to prefer an edge you touch up with someting like a bastard, accusharp, or puck type of sharpener?

NDW
 
From a practical standpoint the major benefit of a convex edge is the smooth transition in geometry. Freehand sharpening a machete with a convex edge is simple, because the natural variation in the angle of your stroke will create a slight convex. :)
 
I don't envisage a Martindale #2 to be ideal either. They're great tools after modification [I've done a few and still have one] but NIB they suck. It would take a hell of a lot of work to get one to penetrate wood anything like as well as the FFG in that vid I linked. And looking at some vines of Florida the most hostile looking one is Smilax bona-nox, a feeble looking brier. I wouldn't even bother with a machete for those 'cos I could ping through them all day long effortlessly with 9oz of butcher knife. I suspect that Mora Rockwool knife FortyTwoBlades poked up a review of recently would have the same effect. Whatever way I'd go with two tools, light and speedy for the feeble stuff and something with a bit of clout for the cross grain wood chopping. [A Condor might have the desirable clout, and could be ideal, but I can't get with the blunderbuss business model of “who cares, we'll get it right on a do-over”. I've sacked people for that attitude, so I'll never buy one even if an excellent one might make it through].
 
get a coldsteel magnum kukri, their great and cheap! hard to kill, check out knifetest.com to see how much you gotta abuse it to kill it, you can chop concrete with it!
 
Tramontina, Martindale, or ESEE in my opinion (in that order, they go up in price).
 
Wow! Thanks for all the responses.

NDW, I've never done a convex edge, but am willing to learn.

I have been looking at some of the Condors. I also saw one custom maker that takes Condor made blades, puts on a better handle, and seems to fix them up a bit. An 18 incher is preferable as some of our vines have some nasty thorns!
 
drj211 said:
Wow! Thanks for all the responses.

NDW, I've never done a convex edge, but am willing to learn.

I have been looking at some of the Condors. I also saw one custom maker that takes Condor made blades, puts on a better handle, and seems to fix them up a bit. An 18 incher is preferable as some of our vines have some nasty thorns!
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Very good. I like Condors but have seen some take the recommendation then not be willing to change how they grew up sharpening machetes.

The Viking blade is awesome with the hook but I just could not get used to the handle when working extended periods even after smoothing out the edges that did not match the metal. My brother has it now. You can look at the stainless El Salvador 18" as an example the seems to match what you are looking for. I deal with the thorny stuff almost every weekend and have found it to be my minimum length.

I have yet to try one of the versions with someone else putting their handle on it but might soon.

Best of luck to you.
 
baldtaco-II said:
I don't envisage a Martindale #2 to be ideal either. They're great tools after modification [I've done a few and still have one] but NIB they suck. It would take a hell of a lot of work to get one to penetrate wood anything like as well as the FFG in that vid I linked. And looking at some vines of Florida the most hostile looking one is Smilax bona-nox, a feeble looking brier. I wouldn't even bother with a machete for those 'cos I could ping through them all day long effortlessly with 9oz of butcher knife. I suspect that Mora Rockwool knife FortyTwoBlades poked up a review of recently would have the same effect. Whatever way I'd go with two tools, light and speedy for the feeble stuff and something with a bit of clout for the cross grain wood chopping. [A Condor might have the desirable clout, and could be ideal, but I can't get with the blunderbuss business model of “who cares, we'll get it right on a do-over”. I've sacked people for that attitude, so I'll never buy one even if an excellent one might make it through].
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A lot of it has to do with cultural differences, the massive number of hand operations involved in their process, and also the fact that they respond rapidly to customer input all combine to potentially create the illusion that they don't care about initial releases. Couldn't be further from the truth. If you're concerned with the possibility of getting a bad one just buy it from someone will to inspect the piece for you before it goes out. ;)

The Mora #333 would do great on vines and such but would lack the "oomph" of a larger machete when it comes to taking out branches. It'll still go through them but might take an extra chop or two.

NDWoods: How long ago did you try the Viking out? Years ago they used to sometimes come with the scales not flush with the tang and pretty square but all the recent ones I've seen are flushed and nicely rounded. :)
 
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FortyTwoBlades said:
A lot of it has to do with cultural differences, the massive number of hand operations involved in their process, and also the fact that they respond rapidly to customer input all combine to potentially create the illusion that they don't care about initial releases. Couldn't be further from the truth. If you're concerned with the possibility of getting a bad one just buy it from someone will to inspect the piece for you before it goes out. ;)The Mora #333 would do great on vines and such but would lack the "oomph" of a larger machete when it comes to taking out branches. It'll still go through them but might take an extra chop or two.NDWoods: How long ago did you try the Viking out? Years ago they used to sometimes come with the scales not flush with the tang and pretty square but all the recent ones I've seen are flushed and nicely rounded. :)
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You make an excellent point about sticking a filter, such as Baryonyx, in the chain to make sure you get what you expect and not a handful of magic beans. I don't conceive of the problem as a cultural thing though just one of scale. We are considering tools that are produced and bought in the manner that one might procure several pallets of shovels. For all practical purposes we are very close to something that is bought by weight [a ton of shovels] rather than individuals, so variation is to be expected. That said, whilst I won't try to sour anyone else to them, there is a clash between that bulk scale and how I buy some stuff, especially knives. There's a mismatch that makes the vendor come off as looking very laissez faire. I'll concede I do have quirks here though; because I'm not buying them by the pallet but as individuals, like a Spyderco, they are pitching to my model “I am buying a tool” and I have zero interest in entertaining anything that tries to dislodge me from the QA and confidence in consistency which underpins how I go about that. As you say, you can use a proxy buffer to screen, I just object to needing to introduce that step on principle. I don't hold any bad feeling toward Condor, and I don't expect anyone to hold the position I hold. In my cousin's position, tooling up her pieceworkers, I'd think differently too...................................................................................................Totally with you on that Mora #333, it's a bit thinner and an inch or so longer than that 9oz butcher knife [strictly a fish chopper] I mentioned, and it probably cuts about the same on brambles or those brier vines in Florida. It's probably as lacking in effectiveness in cross grain wood chopping for the same reason too. I'm still minded to using two tools though rather than one machete. A good two handed tool is going to pay huge dividends over a machete if it doesn't need to be man-portable. Thoughts?
 
baldtaco-II said:
You make an excellent point about sticking a filter, such as Baryonyx, in the chain to make sure you get what you expect and not a handful of magic beans. I don't conceive of the problem as a cultural thing though just one of scale. We are considering tools that are produced and bought in the manner that one might procure several pallets of shovels. For all practical purposes we are very close to something that is bought by weight [a ton of shovels] rather than individuals, so variation is to be expected. That said, whilst I won't try to sour anyone else to them, there is a clash between that bulk scale and how I buy some stuff, especially knives. There's a mismatch that makes the vendor come off as looking very laissez faire. I'll concede I do have quirks here though; because I'm not buying them by the pallet but as individuals, like a Spyderco, they are pitching to my model “I am buying a tool” and I have zero interest in entertaining anything that tries to dislodge me from the QA and confidence in consistency which underpins how I go about that. As you say, you can use a proxy buffer to screen, I just object to needing to introduce that step on principle. I don't hold any bad feeling toward Condor, and I don't expect anyone to hold the position I hold. In my cousin's position, tooling up her pieceworkers, I'd think differently too...................................................................................................Totally with you on that Mora #333, it's a bit thinner and an inch or so longer than that 9oz butcher knife [strictly a fish chopper] I mentioned, and it probably cuts about the same on brambles or those brier vines in Florida. It's probably as lacking in effectiveness in cross grain wood chopping for the same reason too. I'm still minded to using two tools though rather than one machete. A good two handed tool is going to pay huge dividends over a machete if it doesn't need to be man-portable. Thoughts?
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Understood. I look at Condor just as you describe--the same way one would look at agricultural tools.

With regard to the #333 you'd be surprised at how deep those suckers bite! I can go through a seasoned board on an oak pallet in only about 10 seconds or less. Takes a few more swings than a larger or heavier blade but they're very rapid ones with little energy expended. It's like a beaver on crack! :p I keep mine strapped to my pack in a sheath that will soon be available on the site. It's so light there's no excuse for me not to.
 
Thanks guys. I'm leaning toward the Condor Viking. I like the blade shape and think stainless should be good for the humidity around here.
 
Condor's stainless are the only stainless machetes I trust (as well as the Mora #333--I've put that thing through hell! :D) and the design absolutely murders vines and brambles while keeping your hands free of thorns and the large sweet spot at the end of the blade makes heavy chopping a breeze.

CIMG8360.jpg
 
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