What is your favourite machete?

Imacasa is my favorite brand, although they are not easy to find in the states. As mentioned above, they're about as basic as they come but they have everything you need and nothing you don't. The steel rings nicely and seems to hold an edge through some gnarly abuse.

This one is an 18" Latin pattern and, although light, cuts deeply.

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It technically fits in an 18" Ontario sheath, but it's a little loose since the blade is thinner than the Ontario blades it was designed for.

The Ontario 18" gets an honorable mention since it is such a tank. It's particularly useful on the hardwoods in my area (ie, most trees around me are hardwoods). The handle was awful and painful until I reprofiled it with a rasp.

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Also, the SYKCO DT-12 is awesome.
 
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My favorites are the Imacasa brand. I use the 12, 18, and a customized 16in a lot around the yard and camp. The customized one is a 16in Guapote that I removed some of the spine to make it a little more like a Latin pattern machete. It’s a handy in between size for me 👍 For years I had pretty much neglected machetes but a while back I traded into an Esee at a campout and used it a lot that weekend. Just a very versatile tool!

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Alright, I will put in an opinion, I have 2 favorites machetes, one is a David Mary’s Barax in 15N20 (very similar to David Mary’s one he sold) the other is the Fell Beast in 52100. Can’t explain why I need multiple machetes living in an urban area but it’s a welcome sickness 🤔. Zombies? End o times? Joy of a well made blade? Who knows but so it goes...
 
It was a rust bucket when I acquired it and the edge was far worse than it is now. Yeah that a tin ceiling tile.
JR42 said:
Did that guy lose some edge? I've got a 18" Barteaux that looks like an American tanto with that same handle. (Also, is that a tin ceiling tile it's laying on?)
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The 12" Ontario has been very useful to me. Taking care of anything from small areas of grass up branches up to about 1 inch. It is short for clearing a large area of grass,
 
LG&M said:
The 12" Ontario has been very useful to me. Taking care of anything from small areas of grass up branches up to about 1 inch. It is short for clearing a large area of grass,
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I was looking to get the camper model with the orange D guard handle, but waited just a little too long and can't find one in stock at any familiar dealers.
 
I'm personally actually not a huge fan of the Ontario machetes. Too thick, too hard, horrible ergonomics. But they were the only USA-made machete up until they became unavailable. I carried them, but because they were the only choice for a tool meeting those features, but they were a pale comparison to the same machetes made in the 90's and earlier, which had actual full flat grinds.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
I'm personally actually not a huge fan of the Ontario machetes. Too thick, too hard, horrible ergonomics. But they were the only USA-made machete up until they became unavailable. I carried them, but because they were the only choice for a tool meeting those features, but they were a pale comparison to the same machetes made in the 90's and earlier, which had actual full flat grinds.
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for a general purpose 18" machete I'd go south American every day of the week.
I just want an Ontario because they're American made, but the 12" camper is about the only one that might prove useful to me.
 
I really need to bring back the True Grass Machete (TGM). These were made from .075 thick CPM 3V. They only weighed 14.5 ounces. For a future run I'd use Z Tuff and precision grind the flats to remove the mill scale and further reduce weight....I think I'd call it... The TGM AIR. Someone stop me.

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My favorite machete is Condor Discord. But this thing is not a typical machete! It's more a chopping sword, and I love it!
 
I have one of the old ones.... it's badass! You definitely need to make more!
 
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