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- Dec 27, 2006
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- 6,710
I was looking at DanR217's post about machetes and was inspired to dig these two old beauties out. They were purchased by my father in 1978 when we lived in Papua New Guinea. I'm assuming they were new when he bought them, so that would make them about 40 years old. He passed them on to me last year and I finally got around to taking some pics of them.
Both tools are a standard in that region. Almost everyone who works on the land in one way or another owns a machete, and the sarif is a common grass cutting tool used by gardeners and bush clearers, or anyone really. Very popular in the South Pacific from what I've read in the little information I can dig up about them.
The machete's blade is 565mm long and the sarif has a 745mm blade. Both are extremely useful, but the crude handles are deadly on my wussy hands
They would be awesome with ResC handles!
Anyway on with the pics...
The sarif is designed to be used almost like swinging a golf club back and forth when cutting grass, hence the swept up end of the blade. The blade is sharpened on both sides and around the end as well. Simple effective design.
With some of their American pals...
Thick and thin...
The machete has this logo on it. I'm not postive about the brand, but I specualte it may be the merchant Burns Philp. They had (or may even still have) many retail outlets in Papua New Guinea. My dad may have bought it from their Boroko store in Port Moresby, I'm not sure.
The sarif bears this mark. It appears to say MARTINDALE BIRMINGHAM MADE IN ENGLAND.
And next to that mark it has from what I can make out, a graphic of a crocodile with the text REGIST..... can't make out the rest, if there is any.
Anyway, thought I'd share those with you all. A cool bit of gear that's been in my family for the last 40 years. Mostly living in my dad's shed wrapped up in an old hessian sack for at least 30 of them
Both tools are a standard in that region. Almost everyone who works on the land in one way or another owns a machete, and the sarif is a common grass cutting tool used by gardeners and bush clearers, or anyone really. Very popular in the South Pacific from what I've read in the little information I can dig up about them.
The machete's blade is 565mm long and the sarif has a 745mm blade. Both are extremely useful, but the crude handles are deadly on my wussy hands
They would be awesome with ResC handles!Anyway on with the pics...
The sarif is designed to be used almost like swinging a golf club back and forth when cutting grass, hence the swept up end of the blade. The blade is sharpened on both sides and around the end as well. Simple effective design.
With some of their American pals...
Thick and thin...
The machete has this logo on it. I'm not postive about the brand, but I specualte it may be the merchant Burns Philp. They had (or may even still have) many retail outlets in Papua New Guinea. My dad may have bought it from their Boroko store in Port Moresby, I'm not sure.
The sarif bears this mark. It appears to say MARTINDALE BIRMINGHAM MADE IN ENGLAND.
And next to that mark it has from what I can make out, a graphic of a crocodile with the text REGIST..... can't make out the rest, if there is any.
Anyway, thought I'd share those with you all. A cool bit of gear that's been in my family for the last 40 years. Mostly living in my dad's shed wrapped up in an old hessian sack for at least 30 of them
