I've been meaning to a acquire a good machete for work around the house and also in the wilderness. A simple look at Cold Steel's website will show you how many shapes and types are available. What machete's do you recommend in terms of

a. versatility
b. price-to-performance ratio
c. overall quality

Thanks!

I have the Cold Steel Kukri machete. It is cool I have had it for many years I keep it in my car, and have only played with it a little bit.
Mr. Noss at knife test.com liked it,
http://www.knifetests.com/ColdSteelKukriMacheteDestructionTest.html

When looking at all their machete shapes I noticed they are mostly habitation driven, So what are your kneeds where you live and are going.

the khuk is my favorite also. the barong is nice or something wider at the end of the blade like a bolo or panga.

Tramontina Bolo.

I like my Ontario machetes. The only thing I don’t like is if you use them for a long time w/o gloves, the handle rivets will make blisters on your hands. I’ve thought of wrapping it with athletic tape or something to pad it.



One that I’ve heard a lot of good things about that I’ve wanted to get is the Fiskars/Gerber Brush Axe. There’s an article on it in this months Backwoodsman. The only thing is, most places sell it for $30-$40 which I think is a little high. In the summer, I found them at Walmart for $20! That was a lot better. I went back to get one, and they’d sold out and got rid of them along with the other summer yard equipment. The hook looks like it would work well on light brush and thorns.

what style you want is personal preference.i think a khuk works better than any other style for chopping but a traditional style is what will work best for normal machete use like clearing leaves and vines,jungle type stuff.

as far as brands go i would really go with cold steel.i'm not a knives test guy but i was very impressed with what that $10 cold steel machete could take abuse wise.i have two of the khuk style ones.

ontario also makes a great machete.

while there are some more expensive ones out there than these i really dont think that there are any tougher.

i had the BRK&T KSF machete.it worked great but to me a machete sees the ugliest work out of any of my blades,always accidentally going into the dirt and hitting stones and all types of stuff and i didnt like the idea of doing that with a $200 machete when a $10 one will do the job with 90% of the same efficiency.

put your own convex grind and edge on,strip the coating and you got the same thing

Tramontina ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Yes, Tramontina.

Tramontina and Ontario have worked best for me. I've recently acquired a Condor and it seems like a pretty good chopper too. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

I like Tramontina, Cold Steel, and Condor. In the short 12" models I like the thicker Ontarios best, but the Cold Steels are just as good. CS has a large variety in types. I have their panga, barong, bolo, and bowie machetes. Their kukri machetes are good, too. I gave mine to my brother in law and he loves it.

Have a CS magnum kukri machete and that is the worst piece of s*** I´ve ever seen!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

I recommend Linder machete <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /><img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Once you put a good edge on the CS kukri machete, it cuts very well.