Spyderco Forums

I am a devout Spyder-Head through and through. However I don't 100% limit myself to only Spyderco because there are a few blades out there that have garnered my interest over the years. One type of blades I've become curious about but admit that my knowledge is limited in that particular area>> I'm speaking of high quality machetes and big knives like the Gurkha Kukri that I love so dearly. The Gurkha Kukri literally saved my life when being held up one night a few years back and since then I've taken my big blades much more seriously.

Also in the area of Machetes there just seems to be an ocean of cheaply made, poor quality units out there that they fleece the public with. I've had one British made "MARTINDALE" machete and I sold it when money got tight and I truly regret doing that because I can't find anymore Martindale Machetes anymore

Now I"m sure there are high quality companies other than Martindale that make high quality machetes and that's something I want to explore on this thread. Also my experience with Gurkha Kukri blades is very limited. I've had this one Cold Steel model which is 5/16ths thick and made with Carbon V blade steel. I also have another one of Cold Steels Gurkha Kukri knives which has been discontinued long ago and it was the HTC model and has a 15 inch blade and I even use it like a machete.

OK I'm all ears because I truly want to learn more about these most interesting pieces of cutlery. And I want to stay with quality stuff for the most part. However I've heard that there is a company called "CONDOR" that actually puts out some half way decent stuff for a very modest price. Let's talk about Machetes and Gurkha Kukri blades.

Machetes and related work knives are usually built for specific chopping tasks - although many of them excel at multitasking. I didn't really understand the breadth and depth of the knives in this category until I started reading on them. A good place to start is Baronyx Knives http://www.baryonyxknife.com/index.html. They sell a wide variety of work knives and provide detailed descriptions of the plusses and minuses of each style. Really useful stuff.

One example is the classic South American machete. This type of blade is used typically as a field knife for swinging and chopping vegetation. You really don't want a high-priced, heavy, or super-steel version of this knife. You want something that is tough, thin, lightweight, easy to sharpen in the field, and not so expensive that you will cry if you get a ding in the blade. This is the type of blade that Condor and Imcasa sells, for instance. 1075 or 1095 carbon steel, 1/8" thick blade, a little over a pound in weight.

Other styles of working blades are designed for different uses - parang, barong, kukri, bolo, golok, tapanga...

TedP

There's some great YouTube footage of kukhri's being made in Nepal. I've a hankering for one myself.

For a proper Nepalese khukri I seem to recall Himalayan Imports doing regular seconds sales on their bladeforums subforum. I believe they are like the :spyder: seconds in that they are safe and functional but usually have cosmetic issues. I have long wanted to check one of these out.

I've heard only good things about Condor in terms of price:performance.

The machete is an everyday tool around the world and decent machetes can be found for quite cheap due to the very basic steels used. Many are simple spring steels like 1075 and 1084 and most of the world relies on them as everyday tools. I believe that Condor is good quality but have never had one. I believe that they are made in the tropical rainforest of Central America. El Salvador maybe? A machete just isn't a tool I would spend a bunch of money on seeing as how they see a ton of abuse. As long as it is solid it will do the type of work it was meant to do.

I personally don't have a use for a Kukri, but I could use a machete in some of my hikes. However, generally, a small camp axe or large fised blade does that job. I suppose if the zombies attack a Kukri would be pretty **** useful, since it is pretty good at lopping off heads. Or maybe if I was in a war and wanted to try and instill fear in the enemy, as the Gurkhas did. Either way, they're pretty **** cool, especially if you get a genuine one.

Officer Gigglez wrote:I personally don't have a use for a Kukri, but I could use a machete in some of my hikes. However, generally, a small camp axe or large fised blade does that job. I suppose if the zombies attack a Kukri would be pretty **** useful, since it is pretty good at lopping off heads. Or maybe if I was in a war and wanted to try and instill fear in the enemy, as the Gurkhas did. Either way, they're pretty **** cool, especially if you get a genuine one.

It's interesting to me and the reason that I lumped the two blade styles together is because I've used both my Gurkha Kukri blades as machetes and they do great and they seem to have more penetrating power than most standard machetes I've ever used.

The one MARTINDALE machete I had which was made in England seemed like a solid, quality built unit and I very much want to get another one. But they are very hard to find here in the USA for some reason. I've heard that MARTINDALE is a division of SHEFFIELD which are known for high quality cutlery for years.

The Gurkha Kukri knives with the thinner blades seem to make an excellent machete and they don't ding up as bad as the ones made with spring steel. The Gurkha Kukri blades I've gotten from COLD STEEL seem to have decent above average steel in them. I do think that in the area of machetes and Gurkha Kukri knives that Cold Steel knife company truly does give you a decent product at a reasonable price.

I've yet to try any of Condor's products but this summer I may just get one for the heck of it to see if they are even worth the paltry price they fetch.

JD Spydo wrote:

Officer Gigglez wrote:

misprint Sorry

Officer Gigglez wrote:I personally don't have a use for a Kukri, but I could use a machete in some of my hikes. However, generally, a small camp axe or large fised blade does that job. I suppose if the zombies attack a Kukri would be pretty **** useful, since it is pretty good at lopping off heads. Or maybe if I was in a war and wanted to try and instill fear in the enemy, as the Gurkhas did. Either way, they're pretty **** cool, especially if you get a genuine one.

Did??? Do.......!

JD Spydo wrote: It's interesting to me and the reason that I lumped the two blade styles together is because I've used both my Gurkha Kukri blades as machetes and they do great and they seem to have more penetrating power than most standard machetes I've ever used.

Machetes have a very broad scope of work, they are not simply used for light brush, though they excel at it :



Kukris have the same broad scope of work and thus they over lap heavily and there are many styles of each, very heavy duty machetes and very light kukris.

In general, really general, blades for heavy wood work tend to be thicker with blade grinds vs flat stock with an edge bevel (machete), but it isn't a black/white issue as there is so much over lap.

For example if you think about "razor stones" or stones used/designed to sharpen razor blades then they can be used for many other things as well which needed/required/desired a similar edge (very high polish).

-Barteaux are decent machetes made from L6
-Martindale are solid machete
-Imacasa makes the machete for ESEE (Jeff Randall)