I have used two of their machetes, and four of the "spec op" models. The steel is 1095, and the biggest problem I had with them was the inconsistent behavior. Out of the "four spec" ops models, one snapped under very low flex right through the blade, indicating it was overhardened however another one took a bend right through the tang indicating it was too soft. The only two models that I didn't have problems with are really overbuilt, the Marine Raider and khukuri, the latter being the worse designed knife I have ever handled. The khukuri has no primary grind yet is 1/4" thick and has a very obtuse edge grind. You have to basically beat wood apart with it.
The Marine Raider bowie was a decent NIB, I did find the handle too abrasive at first, but I can use it now with no problems. After hogging a lot of metal off of the edge with a belt grinder it is now a very solid performer and for example can cut and chop alongside the BM from Busse on shallow to medium depth cuts (up to 1" or so). The big guard gets in the way though, and loosens quickly and thus rattles constantly in use. This is the knife that I loan out most often for chopping class work. However there have been reports here of people breaking the tips really easily which doesn't surprise me based on what I have seen with the other two knives I used; bolo and survival bowie.
In regards to the machetes, I found the handles slick, but friends like them. They will however explode if you use the machetes for heavy work like splitting wood - which isn't really machete work though. My two also broke apart chopping small diameter hardwoods, which again isn't really machete work either. However they failed in a really bad way which was by blowing huge pieces out of the edge. This surprised me as I later broke them in flex tests and they took quite a large angle to break, this result was distorted however by the large length and thin stock. I have used machetes by Tramontina and Barteaux which had no problems either with the handle blowing part, nor the blade exploding on similar work that damaged the Ontarios. However based on the huge variance I saw with thier other blades, it would not surprise me if this wasn't the normal behavior as the range of performance is rather extreme.
In short, based on what I have seen, I would go with a more dependable knife such as found by a higher end manufacturer like Camillus which offer a more consistent product.
-Cliff
