All you naysayers - it is not economically feasible to produce a quality machete to compete with the cheap ones on the market...

maybe so, but so what ? That is not what SY / SR / Busse are competing against on any of their knives.

I think it is interesting that folks willing fork over 100s of $$$ for a sword, just to have a sword (don't get me wrong, I'd do the same if I had loads of $$$), but don't think enough people would pay a modest price for a high quality, first rate tool that you can actually use, just because there are cheap versions out there.