Machete

What a machete is and what it's for

Here's the thing. A machete is a long blade with not much thickness behind it, built to be swung, not pushed. American Trails' brushing-tools guide sorts it with the tools for weeds, briars and dense green growth, and keeps branches for saws and loppers.

At Hemlock Run it does one job a year: the August Saturday we walk the trails to the stands and cut back what grew since spring. Nobody keeps track of who complained about the briars. Nobody has to.

The same guide puts the technique plainly: a slightly angled stroke works better than a low, flat swing. It also says a machete makes crude cuts on trailside branches, which is why branches get a saw at our camp.

Most work machetes are simple. One US maker describes its line as carbon steel blades with a zinc-phosphate finish and molded plastic handles, and it has built a military machete to US government specs for more than 70 years. There isn't much to go wrong. There also isn't much to hide a bad choice behind.

The table on this page lists every machete we track, sorted by blade length. It shows blade length, blade steel and steel type, handle material, whether a sheath comes in the box, the blade style and the weight. The maker's numbers come first and the Amazon listing's fill gaps (marked as listing values), except weight, which is the maker's alone. When neither states a value, you get a dash, not a guess.

What to look at when you pick a machete

Seven columns in the table. Here's what each one changes, in the order I'd read them.

Pick blade length for your reach, not for the wall

Blade length is the sharpened part plus the spine ahead of the handle, as the maker or the listing states it. It's the first column we sort by because it decides almost everything else: reach, weight, how it carries.

Makers cover a wide spread. One maker sells Latin machetes from 18 to 24 inches. The same maker's kukri pattern comes in 13 and 17 inches, and a short parang from another maker has an 11-inch blade.

Rule of thumb: the tighter the brush, the shorter the blade. Near a stand, you're working between trunks, and a long blade finds the trunk before it finds the briar. In open field edges, more length means fewer steps.

Watch one thing in listings. Titles sometimes give overall length and call it blade length. We take the maker's figure when there is one, so the column means the same thing across rows. Measure twice, as I used to tell my students. Then believe the maker's spec sheet over the title.

Choose the style by where the weight sits

The Style column tells you the blade's shape family. Shape decides balance, and balance decides what the machete is good at.

• Latin: the long, straight-backed blade most people picture; one maker sells it from 18 to 24 inches
• Bolo: one maker says its wide point shifts the weight forward for heavy chopping
• Kukri: a wide, curved Nepali-style blade; one maker pitches its kukri pattern as a lighter camp tool for a belt or pack
• Parang and golok: Southeast Asian patterns; one maker describes its parang as forward-weighted for chopping power with control
• Panga: a style label you'll see in some listings; check the maker's photo for the shape
• Tactical, sawback and other: everything with extra features; see the sibling pages

Jess's take: a weight-forward machete is a longer lever with a heavier end. She's right, and she drew it on a napkin to prove it. The napkin went in the logbook.

Weight forward chops harder, by the makers' own descriptions. It's also more weight out at the end of your arm on every swing. If your summer work is mostly briars and ferns, you don't need a chopper. If it's saplings, you might.

Forward-weighted bolos have their own page, the bolo machete page, and the blades with tactical features are on the tactical machete page.

Read the steel line before you read the handle

Blade steel is the grade the maker or the listing names: 1055, 1075, 1095, 65Mn, 3Cr13 and similar, or just "carbon" or "stainless" when that's all they say. Steel type sorts those into carbon, stainless and a few others, so you can compare rows.

Carbon is the workhorse. One maker calls its whole work line high carbon steel with a rust-resistant coating. Another calls its 1075 tough, good at holding an edge and easy to sharpen in the field.

Stainless is the low-care choice. One maker sells a 420HC stainless parang for corrosion resistance against humid weather and acidic sap. That's a fair description of a Pennsylvania August.

Here's the trade, plain and simple. Carbon steel forgives a home sharpening job and punishes a wet sheath. Stainless forgives the wet sheath. Coatings on carbon blades help, but they wear off where you use the blade most, which is the edge.

Match the handle to wet hands and long days

The Handle column lists the material as the maker or the listing states it: polypropylene and other molded plastics, rubber, wood, Micarta. The common work handle is molded plastic. It doesn't care about rain, and neither do you after an hour of cutting.

What matters is grip when your gloves are wet and your hand is tired. A slick handle on a forward-heavy blade is the wrong combination. Some machetes add a D-shaped handle or a hand guard. That isn't in the table, so check the maker's photos.

Count the sheath as part of the machete

The table shows whether a sheath comes in the box, not what it's made of. A machete without one needs one before it rides in a truck.

CIRSA, a Colorado public-sector risk pool, recommends a protective sheath for every machete and prefers a hard sheath to a soft one. Leather, woven nylon and ballistic nylon sheaths all show up on the maker pages. Sheaths on their own are on the machete sheath page.

Storage is a separate matter. One maker's care page says to store knives in a dry place, out of the sheath. A sheath that's carried a wet blade all morning will hold the water against it all winter.

Weight tells you how long you'll last

Weight is the whole machete without the sheath, in ounces, when the maker gives both figures. On the maker pages I read, an 11-inch parang came in at 15.5 oz, an 18-inch bolo at 19 oz and a thick 12-inch stainless parang at 33.5 oz.

Look at those numbers again. Length doesn't predict weight. Thickness and shape do. That 12-inch stainless blade is 5 mm thick, more than twice the 2 mm of the 18-inch bolo.

Rule of thumb: pick the lightest machete that does your job. The heavy one chops better for twenty minutes. The light one is still swinging in an hour.

Edge and grind: what the makers say

The table doesn't have a column for this, but the maker pages often do. One maker says some of its machetes ship with a utility edge for heavy chopping and others with a sharpened edge for more cutting. Grinds you'll see listed include convex and flat with a second bevel.

The edge you get is the edge the maker chose for the job. Either one can be reshaped with a file. That's a Saturday-afternoon fix.

How to sharpen a machete

A machete edge doesn't need to shave. It needs to bite green wood without bouncing. A file does that, and you won't need anything fancier.

Wear leather gloves and eye protection when you sharpen, and clamp the blade so it can't move.

1. Clean the blade first. K-State Research and Extension suggests mineral spirits or kerosene for sap and steel wool for rust.
2. Clamp the machete in a vise, edge up.
3. Use a mill file. K-State's guide says to push in one direction, then lift the file and repeat.
4. Hold the file at the same angle as the existing bevel, as K-State's guide says, and keep it steady along the whole edge.
5. Go from a coarse file to a finer one, using about the same number of passes on each.
6. Take the burr off the back side with a few light strokes.
7. Hold the edge up to a light. K-State says light reflecting off the edge means it isn't sharp yet.

CIRSA's safety sheet says to sharpen the blade before each use with a file, stone or puck and not to use grinding wheels. A file is slow. Slow is fine here.

If a root or a rock has nicked the edge, file the nick out with the coarse file first, then finish as above.

Machete care between seasons

Carbon steel asks for a minute after every use. Stainless asks for less, but not nothing.

• Wipe off sap and dirt the same day
• Dry the blade, including the spine and the area under the handle
• Oil the steel with a thin film
• Skip chlorine-based cleaners; one maker says they speed up corrosion
• Store it dry, out of the sheath

One maker's care page says to wipe stored blades with clean oil 2 to 3 times a year, more often near water. I do it when I change the clocks. The clocks get done too, eventually.

CIRSA's sheet adds an inspection: before and after each use, check that rivets and bolts are tight and look for cracks. A cracked blade or a loose handle gets retired, not taped.

Who should skip a machete

My one opinion on this page: a machete is for green growth, and anything woody thicker than about an inch gets a saw. CIRSA's sheet says not to cut branches over about 1 inch with a machete. American Trails says it leaves crude cuts on branches. Both of those are easy to check against your own trail.

So if your summer work is mostly limbs over a shooting lane, skip the machete and buy a good folding saw. If you're splitting kindling at camp, a hatchet does that job.

And if you hunt a stand you reach by a mowed path, you may not need either. Some years the briars lose without a fight.

Using a machete safely

A machete is a cutting tool that moves fast. Treat every swing like the blade could miss what you aimed at.

• Wear safety glasses, leather gloves, long pants and boots
• Keep at least 10 feet between you and anyone else, per CIRSA
• Chop away from your body, never across it
• Keep your free hand and your feet outside the swing
• Don't swing while walking
• Sheathe it every time you stop

Knife carry rules and rules on cutting vegetation on public land vary by state. Check your state's rules and your state wildlife agency before you clear anything that isn't yours.

That's the whole machete. Length for reach, style for balance, steel for your habits. Then put it back on the nail dry.