Quality blades - not.

R

Rubber Ducky

Joined
Sep 7, 2001
Messages
647
I just started taking Kali so I thought I'd pick up a couple of machetes to practice with. Just grabbed some hardware store jobbies, and they are really nasty POS.

I guess I shouldn't expect much for $5.00 CDN (each though, c'mon!) :D

Anyhow, with these nasty things I *really* don't have to worry much about cutting myself, or much of anything else. I'll give 'em some time on my stones though and see if I can sharpen them. I'm not going to hold my breath on this; for one I'm a lousy sharpener, for another these blades are really cruddy steel.

Heck, the blades are so bad that the country of origin is ashamed to even put a "Made in..." mark on them...

Pierre
 
What is this world coming too. You pay $5.00 for these machetes and they turn out to be crap. Next time you had better splurge for the 10 buck ones. That way you should be assured of getting something good. Please forgive the sarcasm. :p
 
I think you're going the wrong direction with them. I ground the tips and edges off such machetes and they made some very economical training blades.

If you want a short machete that really cuts, check the BK & T Patrol Machete (I think it may be called the Brush Hog under Camillus' label).
 
Cold Steel has three machete patterns. I think they're made in South Africa, and they are very cheap. They should be reasonably high quality.
 
Tramontina makes excellent inexpensive machetes. They're imported from Brazil, if I'm not mistaken. More expensive but also acceptable are the Ontario military-issue machetes. I picked up a couple of these and bought leather scabbards to replace the flimsy canvas sheaths.
 
I've got a machete from Guatemala.
The carbon steel blade has a really crude finish, the handle is two pieces of wood affixed to the full tang handle with roughly rebated copper pins, but the steel is good carbon steel, heat treatment seems decent and when sharpened correctly it's an awesome cutter. it costed my wife 2$ from a native who used it for dayli chores.
Even if your machete has a crappy finish it doesn't mean it couldn't be a good tool.
Try to sharpen it well, and see how much the edge needs to wear. Your 5$ POS may turn out to be a serviceable tool, if not exactly a collector's piece ;)
 
Thanks for all the replies folks. I really didn't expect any. I was just amused that I could get such cheap pieces of junk :)

I'm hoping that I can sharpen them somewhat, but I'm really not going to be disappointed if I can't. When I feel I want a real machete, I'll probably go with something like the Ontario or another brand like that.

I did some waterwheel flows from Kali with them last night, they're serviceable for that kind of thing. But with the state of the edges right now, I was having a hard time figuring out which side was edge and which was spine - it was dark after all...

My landlords do have some nasty bramble going on in the backyard, so maybe I'll offer to cut some to see if these suckers work.

Alarion: Your machete sounds exactly like mine. I have no idea what kind of steel these are, but the fit and finish sound about right. If your wife paid US$ for it, I think you got ripped off :D

Pierre
 
Find any belt sander and slack belt a convex edge on it. Before
I got a big belt sander I used the 30 inch delta and it worked.
You know how the saying goes about making chicken soup, however most
of the cheap machetes are a flat slab of steel with a half inch flat
grind. They are only 5 bucks so try putting a better edge on them and have some fun.
That said, I found that machetes are somewhat addictive and I kept
moving up the scale until I got the Becker. If you want a good tool, the patrol machete will get the job done.
 
I really like machetes. I have a cheapo, no-name bolo machete from when I was a teenager. I recently took the plastic handle slabs off and put a cord wrapped handle on. I sharpened the blade with a file, and finished it off on my sharpmaker. It will slice water-filled aluminum cans in half, leaving the bottom half standing and filled with water. Also does a number on two liter bottles, gallon milk jugs, and splits firewood into kindling. I have a lot of fun with it, and it is so cheap that I am not worried about ruining it. The Becker patrol machete is definitely on my list of knives to buy.
--Josh
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top