My doctor wants me to get more exercise. But after weighing the cost of a gym subscription against the number of knives I could buy, I decided to do all my yard work by hand instead of with power tools. But because I did not want to risk chipping an edge or otherwise ruining my Godfather, 1311 or other SYKCO knives while doing some brush clearing or other work in my yard, I looked around for an alternative. After some research, I concluded that a machete should fit the bill. A lot of brush clearing is done in South America so I thought that a machete made for the work there would be better than the cheap stainless steel ones available here.
Tramontina of Brazil and Imacasa of El Salvador seem to be well regarded and I was pleasantly surprised by the low cost. The Tramontia was $10 and the Imacasa was $16. I read that most people like to put an edge on their tools that would be best for the type of work that they use the machets for. So, since I didn't know anything about this, I just convexed the edge. I didn't thin it or do anything else beyond a basic convex. After using it for a while, I thought I could adjust the edge according to how it worked out. The machetes worked great! They are light so I didn't experience any fatigue or hot spots and they worked very well. They cleared brush that was too heavy for my weed whacker. And I didn't worry about accidentally burying the edge into the ground and hitting a stone. So don't ruin a valuable SYKCO knife to do yard work, use an inexpensive (but good) machete instead.

Imacasa 20" Panga on top.
Tramontina 18" latin machete on bottom.

When I was in the Philippines I saw many people cutting their grass (yard) with a machete! Now THAT would give you a work out!

Too much of a work out for me! My 21 year old son cuts the grass and touching up after him is work out enough.

WHAT! You mean he doesn't do all the detail work as well? I sure wouldn't be giving him a raise to $15.00 an hour!

Nice!

Im starting my son young,, at 3 got him a toy mower so he can transition into a real one by, oh say, 12?

I have always wanted to get an Imacasa,, for that price I wonder if they are the "mora's" of the large blade world

Both of those are great machetes - I own those and a bunch of others.

What I like to do is file the edge close to the profile I want, use a stone to get a nice edge and the touch it up with a carbide sharpener in the field. The edge gets dull quickly on even the best machetes.

I have also cut grass (on a 30 deg slope!) with a long handle machete with a bent blade called a "brush cutlass". It works just as well as the grass blades like they had in "Cool Hand Luke" and probably better on the thicker grass.

If you want a workout, swinging any kind of machete will do it!