My new "favorite" machete!

Jason Burns · Mar 18, 2001

I found this while looking around on Ebay a week ago. It is an AITOR Bolo Machete. It is 19.5" overall with a 13.5" blade. The blade is 3/32 thick and is 2.5" at it's widest point. I am usure of the steel composition but the blade has an inscription that reads INOX Cr Mo Va.
Here it is in comparison to my Ontario Soft Beak Machete.

It has a great handle configuration that allows for "choking up" to whittle.

My "tests" are just initial impressions really as I do not have the technical ability of Cliff Stamps. I did chopping on several different types of wood and found the performance to be quite remarkable. The Soft Beak model from Ontario was my benchmark for depth of cut comparisons as it has outstanding capabilities in that department. The AITOR would consitently sink %25 deeper in most woods due to its thinner design and grind. It would easily sever poplars in excess of 2 inches with a snap cut.
Chopping on larger trees went well also. I worked on a 10" diameter white oak log and it easily worked its way through this large log. I tried twisting the blade in soft and hard woods and had no occurence of chipping or damage to the edge. (I have broken an Ontario machete doing this!) I also sunk it deeply into a tree and flexed it HEAVILY with no deformation of the blade.
Overall, I am VERY impressed! for a short machete it has outstanding balance and speed. Its thin profile made it a breeze on vines and gave huge penetration when chopping.
The only drawback I found was a "hotspot" near the back of the handle but it was present only when snap cutting to test the capability to completely sever tree sections.
Last, as for edgeholding, it came quite sharp and I touched it up to just shy of shaving. After about an hour of chopping I checked the edge and it was still sharp enough to catch on my fingernail along its whole length. It touched up easily and is now hair-popping sharp.
Great Blade that I would highly recommend

P.S. I picked mine up for $75 but the only link I have found to one is http://store.yahoo.net/gyby/aitbolmac.html

HAPPY CHOPPING!

matthew rapaport · Mar 19, 2001

That has a real nice look to it! Glad to see there are some interesting machete offerings out there. Cliff sent me an 18" blade Bartaux he had used heavily for a review. Put an nice edge back on it and let me have it to play around with myself. Made a date with a friend to go hack up some black berries in a couple of weeks.

Jason Burns · Mar 19, 2001

I took the machete back out today after a meeting to tried it out on dead wood. Cliff Stamps' reviews often mention and edge "rolling" or "chipping" while doing this. I do not have any frozen specimens in GA this time of year but chopped a number of hardening dead logs. The machete, of course, did not sink as deeply as green wood but still bit deeply and seemed to handle the task well. I was not able to detect and chipping or rolling of the edge and it remained very sharp. I tried to conduct a repeatable test on numerous 3" trees. On oak the machete required an average of 6 blows to go completely through. On poplar it took 5 and pine it averaged four. The diameter measurement was based by comparing the trunk to the width of the blade. My Ontario averaged two more blows in every specie of wood tried. I will attempt conduct some rope cutting test to determine edge holding but even after chopping down a total of twelve trees in the 3" diameter range, one in the 8" diameter range and 97 complete severing blows on trees in the 1-1.5" range the edge still bites while passing it along my thumbnail!

Cliff Stamp · Mar 21, 2001

Nice looking blade, seems kind of "high end" for a production machete. Acute edge grind, well shaped handle, decent finish and an index finger cutout, and you actually get a functional sheath.

In regards to the steel, Chrome / Moly / Vanadium alloy steels are very strong and very wear resistant, therefore you would expect the edge to resist deformation very strongly as well as wear very slowly on woods. Pretty much what you have seen.

The only downside may be difficulty in working. If you ding up a simple carbon machete you can simply take a file and work the edge back into shape fairly quickly. However I would be surprised if you could do this with the Aitor as even if the temper has the RC low enough the high wear resistance will really slow you down.

Of course the high strength and wear resistance mean that you should not have to sharpen it all that much anyway. And assuming the heat treat has not left the RC too high you would want to pretty much try to cut up hardened steel or bash it off of a rock to seriously damage the edge. And in any case highly localized damage doesn't really greatly effect the overall functionality of a machete.

The next step up from this in regards to performance would be a similar blade of thicker stock with an actual convex/flat primary grind. This would allow a similar stiffness, strength and balance but would give a thinner edge for better penetration but at the same time a more wedged shape so as to reduce excessive binding on thicker woods.

I don't know of any production versions of this though you will have to go custom and you are going to have to pay about 2-4 times the cost of the Aitor. It sounds like a solid piece for the price.

-Cliff

[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 03-20-2001).]

Jason Burns · Mar 20, 2001

Cliff,
Thanks for the feedback!! I was also concerned about the possibility of edge damage. It seems to hold an edge SO much better than anything I've tried before that there must be a drawback! I think it's a keeper though! I'll take it and the one you are sending with me to Central America (Looks like Costa Rica then Nicaragua) this summer and let you know how they perform!
Thanks Again!!

GREENJACKET · Mar 23, 2001

Nice review. This is the first higher end machete I've seen for a time. Getting onto the lines of my favourite Blackjack Marauder II, though the BJ is a heavier piece of kit and the company is now defunked.

Does anyone know of an electrical knife grinder/sharpener that can make short work of machete dings? Doing it by hand takes forever. Idiot proof of course, so not belt driven.

Cliff Stamp · Mar 22, 2001

There are numerous dual wheel grinders out there sold for sharpening. I have never used them but I assume that they would work. A belt sander is not difficult to use however especially if all you want to do it just get the notches out. If you really want to go rough just get a grinding wheel for a drill and use that. You won't get a good finish (unless you are very skilled), but you will vastly reduce the amount of hand honing that needs to be done.

-Cliff

Jeff Clark · Mar 22, 2001

In the past I have used a 12" mill bastard file for machete sharpening. It was highly efficient on the typical soft blades I found on machetes. Now I use a belt sander. I got mine for about 85.00 at Home Depot. I have also used a soft disk sander attachment on electric hand drills with success. There is risk of cutting the disk or marring the blade with this method.

Jason Burns · Mar 28, 2001

Hey Guys,
Just an update on this machete. After reading a couple other reviews I decided that I had been kinda "soft" in my tests. SO I went back at it and decided that I had better be willing to scratch and ding it up.
1) I tested the blade for its ability to withstand "hard" impact. I first took a knotty 2x4 and began to chop into the knots and split the wood with twisting. This had no adverse affect so I drove a 10penny nail into the board and chopped through the wood into it deformed the edge slightly. The damage was minimal so I attempted to cut the nail in half where it wet the wood. A sharp blow cut the nail halfway through and once again slightly deformed the edge. By slight I mean a slight curling/burring of the edge that came out easily with the diamond file on my leatherman. This did not affect the profile of the edge.
2) I also tried the blade out on digging and found the blade not stiff enough for digging without placing my hand on the spine near the bolo to support it. It did not create any tip damage because of the bolo shape.
3) I tried the blade and found it lacking primarily in it's use for hammering. The blade is too thin to use the spine without splitting the material being driven. Pounding with the side of the blade was also somewhat weak due to the fairly thin/flexible blade.
4) I also re-examined was the handle. I have come to like them as they are quite comfortable. However, they are somewhat lacking in texture when sweaty.
5) Last, I have found the sheath to be remarkably well made but could certainly use a tie down loop at the tip to hold a blade of this length close to the leg.
Hope this revision shows a more thorough test of the blade.

Cliff Stamp · Mar 30, 2001

The lack of chipping on the hard impacts is a good sign. A machete can see some serious forces especially on hard woods so you don't want to get them overly hard. It is much better to have to sharpen them more frequently than to have to try to weld them back together after they break into pieces.

The handle looked to me like it would behave as you described. You could improve the security with a diamond wrap with very slight cord. An epoxy overcoating would make it very resistant to rot, but a decent cord will last a very long time any way.

I finally got around to grinding an edge on your machete. It is very thin. I forgot to measure it before I packaged it up, but I would estimate it at about 10-12 degrees per side. This is optomized for large soft woods and leafy vegetation. If you try it out on harder knotty wood you will probably see some impacting and/or denting. How much will depend on how hard you are swinging and what kind of follow through you have. You might want to blast it at a few hard knots and such just to know what to expect.

There is a large notch near the handle where I believe a friend was trying to grind some kind of either serration pattern or grip enhancement but gave up because the grinding was too much work. When I reprofiled the blade it reduced it somewhat, but I didn't grind it completely out because too much steel would be lost. Like the one I sent Matthew it is a little under shaving sharp. You can easily bring it up to shaving with a very fine hone or high grit sandpaper. I would recommend however that you get a feel for its performance first and do any heavy work with it to see how it behaves before you hone a really fine edge on it - as its kind of a waste otherwise.

I left the tip a bit more obtuse and didn't finish the sharpening on it so as to leave some of the edge for really heavy work such as cutting wire, digging, chopping bone and such. I should be able to get it out tomorrow or early next week so you can expect it about 1-3 weeks after that.

The case it comes is was not meant to be a sheath. That was just something I hacked together to keep the blade secure in the packaging to make sure the postal workers didn't lose a limb throwing the box around.

-Cliff

Jason Burns · Mar 31, 2001

Cliff,
Your the greatest!! Between these two blades I ought to be set for Central America. Our plans have been backed up a bit so we will be there beginning in September. (That means I'll get to go to the Blade show in Atlanta!!)
I REALLY appreciate your generosity and assistance in getting a good blade for Central America!
THANKS!!!

P.S. I'll try the cord wrap on the handle!

[This message has been edited by Jason Burns (edited 03-30-2001).]