Two-Handed Pole Machete

J

JacobLeSann

Joined
Oct 19, 2018
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So I have alot of Burdock in my yard, that stuff thats covered in spiky, itchy, sticky seeds or whatever they are. Cutting them slowly takes too long, while cutting them with a machete ensures that you're gonna get covered in spike-balls. I wanted something to cut Burdock and so on, at a distance.

And thus, this is my new machete. The blade is made from an old 60'' sawmill blade, which I use for most of my machete blade since there's alot of space. I repurposed the handle out of a piece of cutoff Birch laminate, from a staircase I helped to make. I reinforced the handle with some mild steel langettes, which makes it very strong.

The shape of the blade makes it great for cutting isolated groups of brush, thanks to the inward curve of the edge. The wide blade allows for a strong spine to reinforce the flat-ground blade. It's much lighter than it looks.

Cuts well too, was very happy with the performance.


Also, I just figured out what a billhook is now, too late I guess haha. Also seen what a Hog Splitter is, check that out if you're interested in this sort of thing.
 
Nice, though I don't see having the proximal part of the blade pointed and sharpened like the front. I have several blades like the ones here. Sometimes they will put on a much longer handle for clearing weeds off of rice paddy embankments or overhead.

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There was a person awhile back who was working on something similar in purpose. They came up with their own design, I'll try and find it later.
 
Looks like you've re-discovered a tool known to the English-speaking world as a "slasher". :) Should handle burdock without any trouble. The stuff isn't too difficult to cut until it's fully gone to seed and lignified. Once it's all brown and woody it likes to "shatter" and send irritating little hairs everywhere along with the burrs themselves. Those hairs itch like fiberglass. They're just awful.
 
USMCPOP, you’ve shown me those before, still interesting to see, I like their shape, very effective. The spiked part near the handle was mostly cosmetic, it doesn’t really have much use; agreed.

BitingSarcasm, my motto with everything, unless it’s too dangerous to make haha!

FortyTwoBlades, if the slasher is that long bladed polearm with the multiple sockets to attach, I’ve seen that one too; was one of my inspirations though I went a different route due to the rings being harder to make in my opinion.

You described the Burdock perfectly! The stuff around my yard is quite literally all brown and itchy. The green stuff I can just kick out of the ground without issue but the brown stuff just rains hell.

I’ve done a little testing (it’s already frostbite cold here sadly), and it made nice clean cuts through multiple stalks, although I’m not that used to this thing so I miss often. I only dealt with maybe one or two burrs after all that and man did it feel good.
 
Ahh correction, I’m thinking of a different medieval polearm called a slasher (I think). The slasher seems like what I made, surprised I’ve never seen that before, thanks for showing me those.
 
A slasher is a form of light billhook on a pole. The closest North American equivalent is the "ditch bank blade", which is like a double edged machete blade bolted into the end of a double bit axe handle.

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I like this northern Thailand hilltribe billhook style. I have one or two that are somewhat thicker and a bit shorter/heavier. This one has about a 12 inch blade, maybe 5mm thick up by the socket.

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FortyTwoBlades said:
Looks like you've re-discovered a tool known to the English-speaking world as a "slasher". :) Should handle burdock without any trouble. The stuff isn't too difficult to cut until it's fully gone to seed and lignified. Once it's all brown and woody it likes to "shatter" and send irritating little hairs everywhere along with the burrs themselves. Those hairs itch like fiberglass. They're just awful.
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I used to say that it would be time to slay it with fire, but then the world starting burning down around me. A long handled blade sounds like a good compromise.
 
Those look like they fare well. Are the handles round or contoured a little? I used to have a nice grain sickle but it turned in the hand too much so it collects dust. Similar blade to those.

That Thailand bill hook looks like it cuts well. How does it handle with that handle? Any hand shock? Is the blade offset making it hard to cut with?

Also Biting Sarcasm you should see it when farmers around here get tired of burdock, they just make their own little field of hell LOL. I’ve seen it go wrong sometimes to the point where they almost lit their house on fire haha. Burdock gets people riled up.
 
That seems pretty silly, burdock can be eaten/harvested & used. Why does it seem people are so ignorant?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctium#Food_and_drink
The taproot of young burdock plants can be harvested and eaten as a root vegetable. While generally out of favour in modern European cuisine, it remains popular in Asia. Arctium lappa is known as niúbàng (牛蒡) in Chinese, which was borrowed into Japanese as gobō, and is still eaten in both countries. In Korean burdock root is called u-eong (우엉) and sold as tong u-eong (통우엉), or "whole burdock". Plants are cultivated for their slender roots, which can grow about one metre long and two centimetres across. Burdock root is very crisp and has a sweet, mild, and pungent flavour with a little muddy harshness that can be reduced by soaking julienned or shredded roots in water for five to ten minutes.
 
dirc said:
That seems pretty silly, burdock can be eaten/harvested & used. Why does it seem people are so ignorant?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctium#Food_and_drink
The taproot of young burdock plants can be harvested and eaten as a root vegetable. While generally out of favour in modern European cuisine, it remains popular in Asia. Arctium lappa is known as niúbàng (牛蒡) in Chinese, which was borrowed into Japanese as gobō, and is still eaten in both countries. In Korean burdock root is called u-eong (우엉) and sold as tong u-eong (통우엉), or "whole burdock". Plants are cultivated for their slender roots, which can grow about one metre long and two centimetres across. Burdock root is very crisp and has a sweet, mild, and pungent flavour with a little muddy harshness that can be reduced by soaking julienned or shredded roots in water for five to ten minutes.
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Because it can very rapidly grow out of control. I like burdock root, but harvesting it is a pain in the butt (the roots are quite tenacious and tender ones like to snap off in the dirt) and when it's growing ALL OVER THE PLACE it's kind of a bit much. I used to live at a place that was scattered with burdock and I'd feed the larger leaves to the horses, who liked to snack on it, but would mow the young plants down with my scythe. By the end of the season the plants would start getting desperate and start trying to make burrs even though they were half-buried in the ground. But you still have to keep up on it or those burrs will mature and spread and you'll be dealing with a whole bunch more of it later. And if you keep animals of any kind, the burrs will make a real mess of them. The first couple years I lived at that location, I was unable to keep the burdocks managed due to time/seasonal constraints and the horses ended up getting horrible matts of burrs in their coats that had to be cut out. The hairs from mature burdocks can actually cause permanent eye damage in animals that encounter them.

They're a potentially useful plant, but only when proper stewardship is exercised. A great many of them need to be cut in the course of a season, and on the regular.
 
JacobLeSann said:
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That Thailand bill hook looks like it cuts well. How does it handle with that handle? Any hand shock? Is the blade offset making it hard to cut with?...
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The socket on those is generally pretty well centered with the blade, though the one in that picture looks to be a bit off. I don't think people grab them hard enough to get much shock. The blades tend to be thick and wooden handles are put on, at least on the curved ones and billhooks. Around the house, they often just use them without any handle.

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I feel much the same about it's use as a food. It's there and it tastes alright but it's not really justifiable to use as a food. Plus, it's only certain types that don't grow tall, like the stuff that I'm talking about. I have a small patch of the good edible stuff in my backyard but I'm sure that it's more similar to Rhubarb than anything.

Those look simple and easy to produce, yet nice and functional. Do you own any with the wooden handles? Have you handled one?
 
JacobLeSann said:
... Those look simple and easy to produce, yet nice and functional. Do you own any with the wooden handles? Have you handled one?
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If you are referring to the traditional Thai/Lao/Burmese blades, they are not easy to produce. Especially the billhook type. Hand forged from small but thick pieces of truck springs which are hot cut using a chisel. A 6 inch x 1 inch x 3/8 inch piece may become a 12 inch long blade, plus tang. I helped forge two blades and it is a lot of work in that heat and humidity. Modern ones may be cut from plate, but not the ones I have.

I have some rat-tailed tang knives with foot-long handles. The socket knives I haven't handled yet. But I do have one or two 3 ft long pieces of tropical hardwood handles at the ready. I also have a hammer handle that is some sort of endangered rosewood species that I brought back many years ago.
 
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