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Tramontina !!!!!!

C

coote

Joined
Apr 3, 2006
Messages
1,465
I sold a surplus khukuri. This gave me enough money to buy about 11 of these if I wished. Now I have to get or make some sort of a sheath. I am yet to give them a proper sharpen, but I really like the look of them so far. My large knife problem has been solved (for now). These have a 10 inch blade. Not ideal for a lot of brushcutting and heavy chopping, but very handy nonetheless. This shipment arrived this morning.

Tramontina061209.jpg
 
I have several of those as well. All I can say is that they are worth ten times their cost, put a good convex edge and you have a excellent big slicer or chopper. Lot of Bang for the buck.
 
Man I want one !!!
I was going to buy one,went to the local store and the've sold out all the 10 '' Trams... :(
I've got a 14'' Bolo and it's a great tool.
But I will buy one of these immediatley when I spot one !
 
Got them from a company called Robin Exports (NZ) Ltd, based in Auckland New Zealand. They are a company that exports supplies to the Pacific Islands.
 
I agree that these represent a lot of bang for the buck. And being made in Brazil, one of the machete 'centers' of the world, they have a great mystique to them. Good medicine if you like. According to my vernier calipers, the blade is around 0.075" thick. (That is, just a tad under 2mm thick).

There is something about having a full box of new machetes.... or any knife for that matter.
 
I have a friend that uses these as his trail knife. He uses canvas army surplus sheaths for his and they fit pretty well. He is on maybe his 5-6 by now, they will last a long time and are anything but disposable. Convexed edge via file works well. If you put them into a sheath made for a 12" blade ontario, it hugs part of the handle and is a really good fit.

Real light blade, good for chopping trails through light stuff and really good when it comes down to the butchering. Will take down a good sized tree too, but with a increase in effort over a 12" ontario or any heavier machete.

Have fun with em...

his sheath looks similar to this one, but olive drab.
product_6794_1.jpg
 
I have always heard good things about them. IIRC years ago Consumer Reports rated their kitchen stuff as a best buy.

Need to keep an eye out for their bigger stuff now!
 
Have you already tried the other lengths and styles of machetes and find that this one suited your needs the best?
 
That's one of my favorite knives right there, although i only have a plastic handled one. i made a very simple but functional pocket sheath for mine.
 
For whatever reason, the 10 inchers seem about as rare as hen's teeth here in the US. Pity, since it's a good all around size. Don't be folled by the thin blade stock. Those things are tough as anything on the market.
 
Thanks for all the comments and ideas.

Machinest..... I have used other machetes, and no... these 10 inchers won't be the one blade best suited to all my needs. But they will be much more convenient to carry than the longer and heavier choppers and I will be more likely to have a blade with me when I need it.

One thing I use a machete for is to cut through a pest vine called old mans beard. The ten incher will be fine for most of the vines, although they can get up to maybe six inches through at the base. But I'd get through it eventually.

Here's a pic showing the base of a medium vine in the foreground. Its invasive stuff that spreads and can choke big trees. I can't be sure what the brand or length of this machete is, but it is a fairly hefty one with a blade of maybe 13 or 14 inches:

ombeardaudibert2jan07.jpg
 
Coote,

I just did a full convex on a 10 inch Tramontina. There's a spot in the trunk (boot) of my car that just fits one perfectly. They are a great compact little chopper sort of like an over-sized butcher knife. Here in Brazil they are often used in gardening because you can chop what you want to in tight spaces. They also get used in kitchens, I use mine for watermelon.

My son (8) regards my ten inch Tramontina as "his" machete. Now that it shaves he won't be going near it.

Mac
 
Yo Pict. I hope you get your boy another machete.

You are probably one of the biggest contributors to my current affair with Tramontina. Until I'd seen your You Tube video on sharpening a machete I would have probably just given any blade a (rough) convex edge too. But your idea of a flat bit on the back for scraping, and having a Scandi grind near the handle made quite a bit of sense to me. You have some interesting stuff on You Tube.

One of the things I want to try this particular size of machete for is for batoning down a sheep carcase to split the spine next time I am asked to butcher a sheep. So a convex edge near the handle would be better for that.

Flipincanadian. By 'pocket sheath' I guess you are talking about what I'd call a 'pouch sheath'.... a sheath where all the blade and a bit of the handle simply gets pushed into the sheath without any fancy retaining straps or domes. Did you make it out of leather or what? Thanks in advance.

I doubt that I will be able to easily obtain kydex here. So I'm thinking that maybe I could get a cheap plastic chopping sheet from a kitchen shop and use that for a liner inside a canvas pouch sheath. But I'm also inclined to investigate the leather option.... especially because of all the nice pictures I've seen of leather machete sheaths lately on the forum.
 
coote said:
One thing I use a machete for is to cut through a pest vine called old mans beard. The ten incher will be fine for most of the vines, although they can get up to maybe six inches through at the base. But I'd get through it eventually.
Click to expand...

That's interesting--we have a tree lichen around here that we call Old Man's Beard. Looks like this:
lichen_old_mans_beard.jpg
 
I think the world over anything that looks like that gets named "Old Man's Beard". Mac
 
When I was a kid I used to make mustaches and beards out of it. :D
 
Great score! Those little Trams are my favorite small machete. It looks like you have a lifetime supply!
 
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