Short Machete on a budget

[Halfneck]

And the review on Woods Monkey is up.

 

[Bigfattyt]

The Cold Steel machetes CAN be very good tools--they just need a lot of work out of the box. The "edge" is formed by drawing the blank through a couple of grinding wheels, which makes a thin and often warped uneven hollow grind and overheats the steel at the very edge.Once you grind past that soft steel they do a very nice job, though they still run softer than Imacasa/Condor models.

This has been my experience with them as well.

The edge was not what I consider a "working" edge. I had to take a diamond stone quite a few passes per side to get past the flappy wire edge.

I have a 1x30 belt sander, so convexing it was plenty easy for me.

Steel does seem a bit softer. But it will survive a rock smack, I can attest!

It could use a better handle.