Any Machete owners?

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my oldest one says, "Legitimus Collins & CO". no idea how old it is, but it's definitely got the most character of the bunch.
 
Who does not own a machete? The things are useful!. I still have two original Collins machetes I purchased new from the hardware store. Just looked at ebay, prices are insane for like new Collins machetes. Too bad mine are beat to heck, and the blades spray painted, to reduce rust. Guess I will have to use them some more, to take more value away.
 
Thanks for the Collins history. I had never heard of a 'Collins' machate or even thought much about the one I have. It's seen hard use, but never let me down, Used to have a triangular file taped to the leather scabard with GI duct tape. After I got out, it was used to cut down tree branches before I got a set of lopping shears.
 
This thread inspired me to give mine a bit of TLC. I knocked off the rust on the bolo and the 24" and filed out some of the dings. It's amazing how bent out of shape knife knuts such as myself get about perfect edge retention and even grinds when a plain machete will work and work a work with just a few licks of a file.

Don't get me wrong. Proper edges and even grinds are important. I am just amazed how much I can get done with a rudimentary edge and some leverage.

Now I just need to make a couple of new slips to go over the blades out of some spare leather.
 
On a trip into Mexico about 50 years ago, I ran into a gringo who had a collection of machetes he'd obtained from locals by trading them a brand new Tramontina. The patina and blade shape of the used ones were a work of art, as well as the sheath decorations. One elaborately tooled sheath had " Para los Gordos" in ornate script down its length. The locals considered the gringo as sorta crazy for trading new for used....
 
Any Machete owners? You betcha!...... Use mine in the fall to clear trails to deerstands etc. Swung my un-named machete for several hours today. Will have to put a new edge on it tomorrow.(Can't see the rocks while focusing on the brush!:cuss:)
 
I would consider a machete to be a tool rather than a weapon. I suppose it could be used as a weapon in a pinch, but then so could a chainsaw, or a claw hammer.
 
Down here in paradise... south Florida... a machete is the poor man's weapon and you might really encounter an opponent who not only knows how to use one in a fight - but has real world Saturday night experience... Laborers coming out of the Caribbean and points west and south grow up with them in hand (and I can think of quite a few third world jungle type environments that are very similar).

When I was in involved in training for my hundred man department - just north of Miami... We took the Tueller drill very seriously (and of course not just for machetes....). I doubt that has changed in the slightest - all these years later (I retired out in 1995). By the way the officers that did the best in that training were the ones who were able to back pedal furiously while reaching for their sidearm... You don't want to take a strike from a machete - not ever...
 
AlexanderA said:
I would consider a machete to be a tool rather than a weapon. I suppose it could be used as a weapon in a pinch, but then so could a chainsaw, or a claw hammer.
Click to expand...

I have a customer who has lived and done business all over the world. He said the only time he really feared for his life was when he was a property owner in Honduras. He said it wasn't uncommon at all for disputes to be settled at the end of a machete. He lost more than one local field hand to a jealous boyfriend/husband. Generally what would start as a fistfight would end up a machete fight with the loser being nearly decapitated.

In all honesty, I would be more scared of a farmer who had been swinging a machete all his life than I would be a classically trained hobby swordsman.
 
I've owned several, but used a kukuri far more. Even when on my first active duty enlistment, back in '02- I got permission from my sergeant to carry a kuk instead of the machete we had on the TOE as mortarmen.
 
Machetes are very handy. I've cut down trees with them, cleared brush with them, even cut grass (as with a mower) with them. Very handy, but I'm partial to the longer ones. The little ones are ok, but they give up a lot of utility IMO. You'll get old cutting the grass with one of those little 18" jobs, and if you need to cut down something larger than a sapling, the weight of a longer blade will come in very handy.
 
Of course I have a machete. And a Cold-Steel product that sort of falls into the machete category except that it's square on the end and ridiculously thick in the blade spine.

And two cane knives.
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Why? To cut sugar cane with! And brush, vines, etc.

While they can be used as weapons I have never thought of them that way.
 
I have a Collins on one atv and a sog in another. Stuffed between the tank and saddle bag. Great for limbs and briars
 
2 Harbor Freight specials at my house. One is used along the back fence, the other is with my camping gear. They work for what I need them for, hacking vines/weeds/undergrowth.
 
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