Two Reviews: Cold Steel Kukri Machete & Heavy Machete

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I'm reviewing two Cold Steel machetes today, and I figured I'd make this a two-in-one review. The first one is the Kukri Machete, model 97KMS, and the second one is the Heavy Machete, model 97HM. Both sell for around $15 in stores, and both are great choppers - with some work. Read on...

KUKRI MACHETE
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The Handle: The Kukri's handle is stiff, black PVC with checkering all over (including the butt). It's 5" long and gives you enough room to get a good grip, and the butt swells so the kukri doesn't fly out of your hand. It's comfortable in use, but can cause blisters on your hands if you're not used to agricultural or landscaping work (evidence: my wife). There's a lanyard hole in the butt as well, and this really comes in handy when you're outdoors and need to switch to a different tool: just hang the kukri off a tree limb until you need it. The handle encapsulates the tang (it's a full tang) as evidenced by Noss' destruction test. The handle is what it is: comfortable to use and sturdy. It's not removable; it's sealed on.

The Blade: The kukri's blade is, well, kukri-shaped. It's got that nice, deep recurve and thick spine. The blade itself is 1055 carbon hardened to 60-62 (according to my Cold Steel catalog). The blade is 13" long with a 12" edge. It's 1/8" thick and has no stampings or markings. There's a sticker on it with the model name and number, and mention that it's made in South Africa. It has a black, baked-on finish to inhibit rust. This finish bugs me because the entire blade (even the grind line) has it. The blade came pretty dull; I wouldn't even call it a utility edge. I had to get an edge on it with a steel file, then gradually work my way up to a ceramic stick. To get the blade sharp enough to slice paper cleanly, it took about an hour of careful work. Even after this, some of the black finish remains on the grind line, showing that some areas were ground deeper than others.
How does it perform? Well, it works great! I hacked away at a bristlecone pine tree for almost 45 minutes straight, and the edge only required a light touch-up on the ceramic stick due to some rolling. There were no chips and the blade was still perfectly straight. The finish was also intact, and I could've resharpened this thing ad wiped the blade down, and you'd swear it was never used. Great job on the edge retention; I just wish it came with a better factory edge. For a $15 tool, it's really reliable.

The Sheath: The kukri comes with a lightweight black Cordura sheath. It has two snaps - one near the middle of the blade and one near the handle-blade junction - to keep the kukri in place. The belt loop is nylon, and will fit a belt up to 2" wide. There's also a plastic safety toe so the tip doesn't pierce through, and the overall construction of the sheath is adequate. It's stitched and riveted, and it does its job.

The kukri weighs one pound, and it's a pleasure to work with. It doesn't require a lot of effort to use efficiently, and it can do more than its load of the work. I'm really impressed for such a $15 knife, and I might even pick up a spare for the car. It's not groundbreaking and it's not pretty or fancy; it just works, and that's all I care about.

THE HEAVY MACHETE
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The Handle: The Heavy Machete's handle is a bit thicker than the kukris at 5-5/8" long and a hand-filling 1-3/4" wide vertically. I can barely get a full grip on it, and my glove size is XL. It's made of black polypropylene and has a light cobblestone texture. There's a large lanyard hole, which comes in handy for hanging the machete just like the kukri. I like the texture of the Heavy Machete, but it seems just a little too big for me. Working with it, I found it to be better than I expected. It wasn't horrible uncomfortable, but it still slipped loose once or twice.

The Blade: This is the nice part about the Heavy Machete. Like the kukri, it's blade is made of 1055 carbon at 60-62 on the Rockwell scale. It's void of markings and also has a sticker on it, telling you the model name and number and where it was made (South Africa). It has the same baked-on black finish and the same horrid factory edge. This one took about half an hour to get paper-shaving sharp, but still needed the full treatment of metal file, coarse grit, medium grit, fine grit, and then ceramic. It only took a shorter period of time because the blade is more of a straight line and was easier to work with. The blade is 14-5/8" long, 13" of which is the edge. The blade is a whopping 4-1/4" wide at its widest and 2-1/4" wide right at the start of the grind line. It's just under 1/8" thick. This sucker can chop! The forward weight of the heavy tip makes this almost effortless. It sliced through honeysuckle vines about 1" thick with just the weight of the blade. I can't believe how well this thing chops. This will be my go-to machete from now on. The weight is 24 ounces, which is a pound and a half. That's why it's so effective. The blade required the same touch-up as the kukri after use, but it showed no dents or chips, and was still perfectly straight.

The Sheath: The Heavy Machete does not come with a sheath, but they're available separately for around $5. I bought one to carry the machete around in, and it's the same thing as the kukri but shaped to fit the Heavy Machete: black Cordura; two snaps; large belt loop; stitched and riveted. No safety toe, but it doesn't need it (the Heavy Machete has a flat, unground tip).
heavymachsheath.jpg


Overall, the Heavy Machete has become my favorite for clearing out brush and light limbs. Its weight-forward design really lends itself well as a chopper, and it retains its edge long enough to not require a resharpening during use. All for around fifteen bucks.

PHOTOS ADDED
Here they are together...
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Thanks for the review! I've been thinking about getting the Kukri Machete, so I really appreciate the time you spent on this.
 
I bought three of the Kukris a few years ago. They were all factory seconds. There wasn't much wrong with them, but I had to redo the edges too. I've used them for weeding (had to clear an empty lot that had 4-5 ft tall weeds) and some minor wood cutting. The things are beasts for the price!
 
I'm not too enthused with either model, but I have to agree that they're a decent enough value. I'd prefer a Tramontina any day though.
 
Rc 60-62 seems off by about ten points. That's probably around the as-quenched hardness 1055 is capable of, not particularly desirable for machetes. Rc 50-52 seems more like it.

The Kukri model is really pretty good. Decent forward heft, and the shape seems to benefit from the slicing action associated with the shape.

I have the Two Handed machete, which seems to be the Heavy machete blade married to a long handle. I got it because it was cheap and ridiculous. I ended up finding good use for it clearing some banana trees and assorted chopping. Really does the job when that kind of tool is called for.
 
I bought 4 different CS machete models including these two about a year back. They were okay in every regard but only okay. My 18 and 22 inch ontario models vastly out perform them every possible way. Considering how close the prices are (both under $20) I very strongly recommend an Ontario over a Cold Steel. Its not that there was something wrong with any of my CS machetes, the Ontario's were just better, by a lot. The 22" CT5 in particular is a monster, I have even used it to fell a 10" diameter pine tree that had been snapped like a toothpick about 15 feet above the ground during Hurricane Gustav. Took me about 15 minutes to get through it and it was quite a workout but I had fun and my Stihl made short work of the rest :D
 
I bought the CS Khukri Machete a few years ago, and another one in there line and I was disgusted with them. The edge folded and warped anytime it hit anything remotley hard. Tree branches, even thick grape vine would dent or roll the edge. I figure its probably the heat treat but the other one did the SAME thing. I like the designs of there Machete's but that experience has made me sour. Even if the thing is 15-25 dollars it should still be able to cut more than grass.

I am glad your's came in better working condition as far as edge holding ability than mine.
 
One of the reasons I don't like them is how hit-or-miss they are. :)
 
Random question for you, one of my favorite machetes so far was the Tram Bolo. If you have the CS Bolo, is the sheath for that particular model compatible with the Tram? I agree with your assessment of the CS Kuk - I spent a similar amount of time filing and sharpening mine, and I figure the finish with polish out of the grind in time.
 
I have a CS GI tanto, I have resharpened immediately the edge (out of the box the edge was so so) with my Kai & Norton water stones, till 8000 grit with also stropping, & my GI proven to be really good in edge holding ability (especialy on chopping, batoning & carving), also is chip resistant (I accidentally hit a rock with the edge during batoning, but the edge gets only a tiny chip, fixed with sharpening).
I am really happy with my GI, edge holding is really good, it is chip resistant (of course not chip proof & I sharpen it with very fine grits to obtain maximum chip resistant ability), it cuts well (for the geometries that it has) & sharpen easy, it is also a great value.
The cons are bad fit & finish (especialy on grind), only aesthetically, the knife has good dehorning & tough paint.
So if you want a "nice" knife forget Cold Steel cheap models, but if you want a robust, well performing & good value knife, Cold Steel models are excellent.

If the machetes are good like the cheap fixed blade (by the way they are made of the same material 1055) I will buy one without esitation (but I don' t nead a machete for now), I also like Barong design, but it seams that it is discontinued:(.
 
one of my favorite machetes so far was the Tram Bolo.

It's funny...I went out to breakfast this morning and the knife that came to the table with my breakfast burrito was a Tramontina steak knife! :D
 
um.... the RC 60-62 edge was filed sharp? typo or do you have some quite spectacular files?
 
um.... the RC 60-62 edge was filed sharp? typo or do you have some quite spectacular files?

I was quoting the catalog description in the Cold Steel catalog when they talked about their 1055 carbon steel. In reality, the Rockwell hardness is around 54 or so.
 
There is a video floating around Youtube showing Lynn going to South Africa and watching the production. There are some hardness tests being done, with number written on the blades. The numbers were 48-50. You dont see the screens on the hardness machines, but I assume that was the tested hardness. There is no real way to be sure. It could have been just the test number for that day or something.
 
I noticed a change from the stock photos/graphics to the actual pix from your review. The primary bevel looks like it goes all the way to the handle on the Kukri and all the way to the notch on the Heavy. The primary bevel seems to gradually roll into existance about an inch or inch and a half from the those points on the actual photos. Just curious to me. Nice review. I have been thinking about that kukri for a long time now.
 
I noticed a change from the stock photos/graphics to the actual pix from your review. The primary bevel looks like it goes all the way to the handle on the Kukri and all the way to the notch on the Heavy. The primary bevel seems to gradually roll into existance about an inch or inch and a half from the those points on the actual photos. Just curious to me...


I didn't notice until you pointed it out, thanks :thumbup:
 
Rc 60-62 seems off by about ten points. That's probably around the as-quenched hardness 1055 is capable of, not particularly desirable for machetes. Rc 50-52 seems more like it.
.

I was quoting the catalog description in the Cold Steel catalog when they talked about their 1055 carbon steel. In reality, the Rockwell hardness is around 54 or so.

Shecky is correct. The Cold Steel web site says 60-64 is the "quenched hardness". That is the hardness before the blade is tempered.:
Q: What is 1055 Carbon Steel?
1055 steel is right on the border between a medium and a high carbon steel, with a carbon content between 0.50%-0.60% and with manganese between 0.60%-0.90% as the only other component. The carbon content and lean alloy make this a shallow hardening steel with a quenched hardness between Rc 60-64 depending on exact carbon content. These combination of factors make this one of the toughest steels available because, when quenched, it produces a near saturated lathe martensite with no excess carbides, avoiding the brittleness of higher carbon materials. This steel is particularly suited to applications where strength and impact resistance is valued above all other considerations and will produce blades of almost legendary toughness.
http://www.coldsteel.com/faqs.html#VG1 stainless
 
Ah, got it. Looks like I misunderstood that catalog description. My mistake.

Since the quenched hardness has little to do with the hardness of the final blade, I cannot help feeling that Cold Steel does this sort of thing on purpose. They didn't lie exactly. But they do seem to have pulled a "This way to the egress" stunt.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnum's_American_Museum under "ATTRACTIONS")
 
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