I had a few people ask me if those $8 Wal-Mart machetes are any good. The short answer is no, they're not. Wal-Mart sells the Ozark Trail machete, and like most of the other Ozark Trail products I've tried, it's horrible. I don't even want to waste the time here to do a review on it. But here it goes, and my only hope in making this review is that you'll buy something else. The Ozark Trail machete is made in China, and sells for around $8-$12 at Wal-Mart.
The Handle: It's black plastic, and has 4" of gripping area. The plastic is thin and fells cheap, and I can actually move it (dent it in) with hand pressure. The handle is made up of two pieces of plastic that are pressed together, and the area where they join is sharp and uncomfortable. It seems that soe of the Ozark Trail machetes have riveted handles and some are just pressed on; mine are pressed on. Also, some of them have a lanyard hole and some don't. Mine doesn't. The pressed-on handles on mine loosened up after only a few swings, and I only bothered to duct tape them tight. The handle is just a pain in the rear to work with: it's too small to get good purchase on, it's sharp where the handle halves meet, it's flimsy, and it's loose. If you're not careful and don't notice the handle scales separating, you can really pinch your skin in between them.
The Blade: The blade on the machete is 18" long with a 16-1/2" edge. It came surprisingly sharp for a $8 blade, but it was still dull by any real standards. There are no markings at all on the blade except for the black coating, and it came in at 1/16" thick. Now is the horrible part: it bent after only two whacks into medium-thickness (about the thickness of a nickel) wood. The same wood that I've used many times for testing without fail. The blade bent after only two whacks. The bend was about 20 degrees or so; not enough to snap the blade, but way more than normal. Upon closer inspection, it bent at two different spots: one was just a bend on the edge and 1/2" upward of it; the other bent the entire blade all the way up to the spine. And no, the blade didn't make it through this medium-thickness wood. I straightened it out the best I could, but it was pretty bad looking. After some more whacking, this time on brush and vines, the blade had a few chips in it. There was no more edge, as it was mostly chips and dents. This is from (to me) very light-duty work. I'm talking about brush no thicker than a rose bush, and vines no thicker than a dime. Things that my $6 Tramontina machete goes through very easily. After a while on a coarse file, the edge was evened out enough to resharpen. It sharpened up readily, but kept developing a burr that just wouldn't go away. I left a utility edge on it and didn't even bother to get it sharp enough to cut paper. This utility edge wasn't any better. It actually tore the metal when I went back to the dime-sized vines. By this time, I had enough with the $8 Wal-Mart POS.
The Sheath: This thing comes with a green nylon sheath, which is light in weight and pretty low in quality. It will fit onto a belt up to 1-3/4" wide, and it also has a hanger for a pistol belt (note: some don't have the hanger). It is what it is: a cheap way to keep your fingers off the blade while transporting the machete.
Overall, I'd say this is one of the worst choices you can make for a machete. You can do so much better without spending a load of money. Any machete from Cold Steel, Ontario, Tramontina, etc. will do better. That old lawn mower blade in your garage will do better if you put an edge on it. Just don't buy this piece of trash.
To the Forum member that asked me specifically to test this Ozark Trail machete: I actually want to thank you. Thanks for letting me know that there's such a piece of crap out there. I'm serious. I thought the Pakistan-made no-name machetes were bad, but they're nothing like this. At least those stay relatively straight. I still have your address, and I'll be sending you the Ozark Trail machete in hopes that you'll at least get some use out of the sheath before it falls apart. I'll also be sending you a Tramontina 16" machete so you have something of quality to use, as well as the Wal-Mart receipt for this piece of bent steel (just as a souvenir). I'm laughing on the outside, but inside it just makes me miss my Ontario
The Handle: It's black plastic, and has 4" of gripping area. The plastic is thin and fells cheap, and I can actually move it (dent it in) with hand pressure. The handle is made up of two pieces of plastic that are pressed together, and the area where they join is sharp and uncomfortable. It seems that soe of the Ozark Trail machetes have riveted handles and some are just pressed on; mine are pressed on. Also, some of them have a lanyard hole and some don't. Mine doesn't. The pressed-on handles on mine loosened up after only a few swings, and I only bothered to duct tape them tight. The handle is just a pain in the rear to work with: it's too small to get good purchase on, it's sharp where the handle halves meet, it's flimsy, and it's loose. If you're not careful and don't notice the handle scales separating, you can really pinch your skin in between them.
The Blade: The blade on the machete is 18" long with a 16-1/2" edge. It came surprisingly sharp for a $8 blade, but it was still dull by any real standards. There are no markings at all on the blade except for the black coating, and it came in at 1/16" thick. Now is the horrible part: it bent after only two whacks into medium-thickness (about the thickness of a nickel) wood. The same wood that I've used many times for testing without fail. The blade bent after only two whacks. The bend was about 20 degrees or so; not enough to snap the blade, but way more than normal. Upon closer inspection, it bent at two different spots: one was just a bend on the edge and 1/2" upward of it; the other bent the entire blade all the way up to the spine. And no, the blade didn't make it through this medium-thickness wood. I straightened it out the best I could, but it was pretty bad looking. After some more whacking, this time on brush and vines, the blade had a few chips in it. There was no more edge, as it was mostly chips and dents. This is from (to me) very light-duty work. I'm talking about brush no thicker than a rose bush, and vines no thicker than a dime. Things that my $6 Tramontina machete goes through very easily. After a while on a coarse file, the edge was evened out enough to resharpen. It sharpened up readily, but kept developing a burr that just wouldn't go away. I left a utility edge on it and didn't even bother to get it sharp enough to cut paper. This utility edge wasn't any better. It actually tore the metal when I went back to the dime-sized vines. By this time, I had enough with the $8 Wal-Mart POS.
The Sheath: This thing comes with a green nylon sheath, which is light in weight and pretty low in quality. It will fit onto a belt up to 1-3/4" wide, and it also has a hanger for a pistol belt (note: some don't have the hanger). It is what it is: a cheap way to keep your fingers off the blade while transporting the machete.
Overall, I'd say this is one of the worst choices you can make for a machete. You can do so much better without spending a load of money. Any machete from Cold Steel, Ontario, Tramontina, etc. will do better. That old lawn mower blade in your garage will do better if you put an edge on it. Just don't buy this piece of trash.
To the Forum member that asked me specifically to test this Ozark Trail machete: I actually want to thank you. Thanks for letting me know that there's such a piece of crap out there. I'm serious. I thought the Pakistan-made no-name machetes were bad, but they're nothing like this. At least those stay relatively straight. I still have your address, and I'll be sending you the Ozark Trail machete in hopes that you'll at least get some use out of the sheath before it falls apart. I'll also be sending you a Tramontina 16" machete so you have something of quality to use, as well as the Wal-Mart receipt for this piece of bent steel (just as a souvenir). I'm laughing on the outside, but inside it just makes me miss my Ontario
You gave it a pretty fair shot. So kudos to you, JNieporte!
