Posted: 8/12/2011 6:43:56 PM EDT
| What machetes do you recommend? We recently bought some land and have some light stuff that needs to be chopped down and it would be a waste to carry in a chainsaw. |
| Condor makes a nice one. A friend of mine showed me and I have to say its a nice one. The grip is great! Condor Parang |
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I've got an old Tramontina that I traded some farmer in Honduras for many years ago, the blade has about 6" over the generic military type machetes. Its a nice souvenier and it gets a little use once in a while.
I wouldn't spend extra money on a machete, just get a couple of cheap corn knives or machetes from the local farm store and put a good edge on them. I've got 4 or 5 around the farm and in vehicles and just beat the hell out of most of them. They get chipped and bent to hell, when they go bad I spend a few bucks for a new one. I've seen some used and resharpened until about half the steel is missing from the blade. |
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What machetes do you recommend? We recently bought some land and have some light stuff that needs to be chopped down and it would be a waste to carry in a chainsaw. what are you clearing brush or small trees? Mostly low hanging branches and some brush that is in the pathways |
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Cold Steel Latin machete for light duty. The 21" seems to be the right length for me. The tip is a little too upswept for my tastes when clearing but it isn't too bad. When limbing trees you can remove the limb then fling the branches out of the way and the machete I am used to is not as upswept so I can't do it as well with the CS. 24" is too long for me to fling stuff with, just too much leverage on my wrist. 18" is okay for camp stuff but requires me to bend over too much for limbing close to the ground for amy length of time.
The handle on the cold steels is alright, not something I'd want to use for a living, but the price is good and the steel seems decent, though the edge might need some attention. For the $ the CS has the best and most durable grip I think. Seen plenty of the cheapies plastic handles fail with just normal use the first time out. Gotta find an old Collins or the like for real work. I don't know if it means anything to not but my preferred machetes all have a certain ring to them when you tap them. Cheap ones don't seem to have it. A good machete won't shock or jar your hand and does not require you to have to grip it with all your strength. |
| also, keep in mind many machetes made overseas will come fairly dull. It is expected the end user will put their prefered type of edge on it. Also different edges work better for different types of cutting. Unfortunately, while I know that much I don't know which is best for you. Not much call for a machete on the plains. |
| Ontario 18" standard model, not the econo, if you're going to be cutting limbs and small trees. I had a Cold Steel Latin 21" and it wasn't good for anything other than weeds and very small saplings. I have an Ontario 12" Cutlass machete and it's alright, but the 18" is great. It's made in the USA and very reasonable. |
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I would get a bush axe if you have to cut much.It's sometimes called a ditch bank blade in some stores like Lowes.IMHO you can get alot more done with it than a machete.You will need to put a little better edge on it with a file than what it comes with. Bully Tools makes a bank blade right in the OP's home state. I've never used it so I can't make any claims as to its effectiveness. |
| if you want to stay cheap but still have solid machete. condor is where its at. condor golok or parang are some of my favorites. if you are willing to spend a bit more the blindhorse machete is great or look at fiddleback forge, his machetes are amazing to say the least. 110 to your door but no sheath. |
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I have this saved in my bokmarks.
http://www.smkw.com/webapp/eCommerce/products/MA12718.html disclaimer: the person wielding did not speak so might be foreign born and possibly be a samurai or ninja ya but dammnn! schwing! http://youtu.be/MGS8Fkuwhto [YOUTUBE]MGS8Fkuwhto[/YOUTUBE] |
