Off Topic Where do machetes belong ?

[Hickory n steel]

My Dad had a scythe like 42 used. Wish I would have kept it when he died. I just don't have much use for stuff like that. There used to be scythes that had a long handle and were quite potable.... basically a stick with a blade on it (L shaped). They would work and are were certainly inexpensive.

Here's a link at the big river site. Can't insert it. Just search and you'll see it for about $25 or so.

Hickory, you can kill it with weed killer, but that doesn't remove it. I would just keep chipping away at it.

I'm gonna do that and maybe finish tomorrow ( it's only about 5x15 now ), but once I get it down this time I figure weed killer may help prevent it from coming back.

 

[22-rimfire]

Just mow it. Weeds don't like to be mowed regularly, especially short. Or do you just want it to be dirt?

 

[Hickory n steel]

Just mow it. Weeds don't like to be mowed regularly, especially short. Or do you just want it to be dirt?

I have to figure out a way to get rid of the existing super crabgrass first, because it seems like once you get the super crabgrass it's hard to get rid of because the mower can't go low enough to get rid of it.
The stuff I get in the front yard doesn't get enough water to get huge do it's fine.

 

[22-rimfire]

Not machete related, but the solution is a pre-emergent for the crab grass. Crab grass is an annual which re-seeds itself year after year. The pre-emergent from the garden center/hardware store/home center should take care of it. You will have to apply it in February and a couple times afterwards yearly for a while. Plant some regular grass there later perhaps. You can look up pre-emergents on line, but basically you first apply it just before stuff starts to green up in the late winter/early spring. It keeps seeds from germinating.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Not machete related, but the solution is a pre-emergent for the crab grass. Crab grass is an annual which re-seeds itself year after year. The pre-emergent from the garden center/hardware store/home center should take care of it. You will have to apply it in February and a couple times afterwards yearly for a while. Plant some regular grass there later perhaps. You can look up pre-emergents on line, but basically you first apply it just before stuff starts to green up in the late winter/early spring. It keeps seeds from germinating.

Might have to try that.

Just to keep this about machetes, here's what the handle of the 14"er looked like last week ( old crappy picture I had to salvage from Photobucket )

You can probably tell that I hadn't gotten it as slim as it's big brother and it just didn't feel right.
Could've just fixed the problem, but decided to make it different.

 

[sabre cat]

Most machetes are made with 1075ish high carbon steel, a few 1095, or 420HC stainless. Tamontina and Imascasa are probably the two big machete manufacturers. Most of the US companies that sell their own line of machetes start with a Imascasa blank as I understand it. Ontario makes their own machetes.

For chopping bigger stuff, you generally want a stiffer machete. For the light stuff, a thinner wispy machete.

The come in lengths generally between 12" and 24" (blade). I think the short ones make a good survival type knife.

I think you want a machete that is relatively soft steel wise to allow you to both quickly sharpen it and to file or hone out chips or rolls from chopping into something like a rock. They are generally work tools.

If a person is not familiar with using a machete, I suggest something in the 14-18" length and something sort of in-between in the rigidity department. The wispy flexible ones are more for grass or thin woody vegetation.

The HANDLE is most important to me. You want something comfortable to use. Do you want something that you have to work with (sand or re-shape) or do you want something ready to rock and roll? Depends a lot of hand size and personal preferences.

If this was posted for my benefit, thank you. The only "real" machete experience I have ever had was with the ones they issued to us when I was with the Corp of Engineers. When they issued it, I carried it. That is about it. I don't ever remember cutting anything with one. Can't remember what brand but, I want to say Ontario.

I probably don't even need one but, I would like something to round out my collection of cutting tools. Just for GP.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

My Dad had a scythe like 42 used. Wish I would have kept it when he died. I just don't have much use for stuff like that. There used to be scythes that had a long handle and were quite potable.... basically a stick with a blade on it (L shaped). They would work and are were certainly inexpensive.

Do you perhaps mean a corn hook, a long-handled grass hook, or a scythook? Corn hooks were basically a sickle-like machete blade riveted on a roughly 18" handle. Long-handled grass hooks resemble a small tang-less scythe blade (only about 12") that bolted to a shank that was either socketed or attached via the tang-and-ferrule method and had a handle about 36". Scythooks were like a hybrid of a scythe and a long-handled grass hook and had a roughly 60" straight handle with a single nib (side grip) and what was essentially a giant grass hook blade bolted to a clamshell-style mounting bracket.

 

[Ironbut]

Timely thread. I have a creek that runs through my property & I need to clean off the bank occasionally. In the Spring, I put the blade attachment on my Stihl Professional weed eater & clean off the heavy weeds & briars. After that, I'll take the brush hook & get the heavier stuff. I still want vegetation there for the wildlife, but I just don't want it overgrown. Probably what I need is a machete to knock down the poke weed & heavy weeds occasionally during the Summer months.

 

[22-rimfire]

Do you perhaps mean a corn hook, a long-handled grass hook, or a scythook? Corn hooks were basically a sickle-like machete blade riveted on a roughly 18" handle. Long-handled grass hooks resemble a small tang-less scythe blade (only about 12") that bolted to a shank that was either socketed or attached via the tang-and-ferrule method and had a handle about 36". Scythooks were like a hybrid of a scythe and a long-handled grass hook and had a roughly 60" straight handle with a single nib (side grip) and what was essentially a giant grass hook blade bolted to a clamshell-style mounting bracket.

As you describe the differences, it was the Scythook or the long handled and long bladed scythe. As a kid, I was always afraid to use the thing. It was seemed really big to me. Frankly I still would be very careful using such a cutting tool. I believe it was intended to harvest grass (hay) back in the day.

 

[bearfacedkiller]

Where do machetes belong?

For me it is under the backseat of my truck. It is such a multi purpose tool I like having one in there. At home I often have better options for whatever the task at hand is but there is no denying the versatility of the humble machete when you are not at home.

 

[22-rimfire]

Machetes are very handy tools and I keep one in my truck all the time inside the Condor leather sheath to keep it from cutting anything it shouldn't.

Hickory, I just looked up Red Rooted Pigweed for pictures. I kept thinking that the tall grass was what you believed to be the pigweed. It looked like crab grass to me, but I don't know every grass... so.. The pictures online show it to be a broad leafed weed. Anyway, I have some of the Pigweed coming up in the less groomed areas of my yard. Control would be with a broad leaf herbicide. I buy specific stuff for broad leaves and grasses rather than the stuff that kills everything. Plants generally need to be growing for the herbicides to work well. I usually just hand pull the pigweed when I get around to it.

With crab grass in mass, it's probably easier to simply spray a herbicide periodically and kill it all. Then mow it down after it's dead. PreEmergents are more for turf areas and selective in the sense you don't want to hurt you regular yard grass that is already growing. It lasts about 45 days before seeds will begin to germinate in areas where it is used (fyi), so don't plant regular grass quickly after an application as it won't germinate either.

 

[maximus83]

Couple of my favorites. Tramontina 18" ($42 as pictured, sharpened to tip with convex, including sheath), and Condor Golok ($104 as pictured, sharpened to tip with convex, and sheath). Recently had both cleaned up and professionally sharpened. The Golok you can actually shave with, and it'll cut through branches and logs faster than anything I have other than a full-sized axe, plus it doubles as a machete and large knife.

 

[Lee D]

Very nice looking pair maximus
(Yes imo machetes can be "pretty" lol)

 

[22-rimfire]

I first used machetes cutting lines surveying. I could never sharpen them very well and my blade was always lacking. I was using the cheap big box store machetes then. Very poor quality in general. In later years, as I mentioned before I wanted something to have with me for chopping stuff around houses I was working at... overgrown bushes or briars over sidewalks and low hanging limbs that were in the way.... I thought the 12" Ontario would work and be useful in the woods too. I'm sort of cheap and I thought they were expensive at around $20 each. The Ontario handles really hurt my hands and I simply stopped using them and looked for a better option. That is when I got my first Condor Golok. Loved it!! Also got the longer Condor Parang shortly after, but never seemed to use it much. If you want one short machete.... I would whole heartedly recommend the Condor Golok even though it is a little expensive. But my current all time favorite machete is the wood handled 18" Condor El Salvador. It's great and the handle is perfect for me as it comes from the factory.

 

[maximus83]

If folks could see the thickness and quality of the carbon steel in the Golok, and then see that edge on mine after it's been convexed, you'd know it's well worth it, a quality piece of kit. But it's worth having a variety of tools, really. I like the lightweight and inexpensive Tramontina too and use it a lot. But the Golok is the heavyweight, go-to favorite for serious chopping.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

As you describe the differences, it was the Scythook or the long handled and long bladed scythe. As a kid, I was always afraid to use the thing. It was seemed really big to me. Frankly I still would be very careful using such a cutting tool. I believe it was intended to harvest grass (hay) back in the day.

Here's an image of a scythook. They weren't intended for haying--full blown scythes with long grass blades were used for that. They were more for cleaning up vegetation around the property. An economical option for folks who didn't necessarily need a full scythe but would see benefit from something more substantial than a long-handled grass hook.

 

[maximus83]

Geez, I coulda used that scythe hook as a kid trying to clean up massive stands of nettles at the back of our farm. What I actually used? Machete. Wrong tool for the job.

 

[22-rimfire]

42, I think it was simply a scythe like the one in your golden rod video.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

If interested in viewing the full catalog, I posted it all here. I think that grass hooks, corn hooks, and scythes all need to find a restored place of honor in America's tool sheds.

 

[22-rimfire]

I need to visit your website more often. You offer a lot of tools that are very difficult to find. There is a trend of acquiring and using the "old tools" in our mechanized society.

Don't know why this thread got moved, but I guess it was becoming so diverse in topic that it didn't fit in general knives any more.