Are Machetes classified as swords?

not2sharp said:
Weapons and tools differ in that the former is always involved in an arms race, and has to be designed to counter the enemy’s defenses. But, if your enemy is dressed in modern street clothes, the sword can devolve back to just a classic efficient cutting edge, or, space permitting, a rapier.

n2s
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I tend to think of it as side-volving, rather than devolving. Even a simple, square, brutish LOTR style orc sword is still a sword! :D Pretty awesome sword too, if you ask me.


Mr opinionated said:
Just remember some weapons were once agricultural tools.
Nunchucks use to be a farming tool. Same as the Karambit and Kama.
These were used because long ago only a soldier or person of noble blood line was allowed to own a sword.
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Yes, but a sword was never a farming tool, by intent or design. It was always a weapon meant to fight and kill, which is a huge distinction. It's THE distinction, from which follow the designs.
 
Mecha said:
I tend to think of it as side-volving, rather than devolving. Even a simple, square, brutish LOTR style orc sword is still a sword! :D Pretty awesome sword too, if you ask me.





Yes, but a sword was never a farming tool, by intent or design. It was always a weapon meant to fight and kill, which is a huge distinction. It's THE distinction, from which follow the designs.
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You made a good point there. And I gotta concede
 
Mr opinionated said:
You made a good point there. And I gotta concede
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Well there can certainly be hybrids, blades designed and intended to be both an efficient plant cutting tool and a weapon, well-designed for both uses, and with little trade-off. I just assert that it is definitively a hybrid, between two things that are distinct.
 
In my opinion Machetes are not swords. They can, of course, be used as a weapon and certainly have been. That said, the blade geometry, balance, heat treat etc. are completely different than that of just about any sword type you would care to mention.

Swords evolved over time to respond to defensive armour or eventually the lack thereof. Machetes were not involved in that they came from a completely different line of agricultural implements. Think elephants and tapirs. Related yes, but took different paths long ago...
 
I regularly use a katana as a weedwacker / light "grass" machete . :cool: Actually works great and is more fun .

Years ago , my wife accepted that the katana's purchase price should be allowed to come out of our tool and building supply / yard maintenance budget rather than my personal entertainment budget . :):thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

So , I always favor defining everything as "tool" over "weapon " , whenever remotely feasible . :rolleyes:
 
DocJD said:
I regularly use a katana as a weedwacker / light "grass" machete . :cool: Actually works great and is more fun .

Years ago , my wife accepted that the katana's purchase price should be allowed to come out of our tool and building supply / yard maintenance budget rather than my personal entertainment budget . :):thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

So , I always favor defining everything as "tool" over "weapon " , whenever remotely feasible . :rolleyes:
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Bush sword! :p
 
Heh, in my opinion machete can be, some kind of a "multi-purpose-tool". You can use it as a yard work machete tool, you can use it for survival, defence.. use it to cook something hehe...what else?
 
Easy_rider said:
Heh, in my opinion machete can be, some kind of a "multi-purpose-tool". You can use it as a yard work machete tool, you can use it for survival, defence.. use it to cook something hehe...what else?
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There was that one guy at the blade show that shaved with one...
 
Are machetes classified as swords? Probably not.

Here's a possibly better question. Outside of certain specific uses and circumstances, would machetes have been favored in historic pre-firearm battles, either by the soldiers equipped with them, or the smiths tasked with forging/repairing them for said battles?
 
Charlie_K said:
Are machetes classified as swords? Probably not.

Here's a possibly better question. Outside of certain specific uses and circumstances, would machetes have been favored in historic pre-firearm battles, either by the soldiers equipped with them, or the smiths tasked with forging/repairing them for said battles?
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Since they were not so favored I guess the answer would be no?
 
DocJD said:
I regularly use a katana as a weedwacker / light "grass" machete . :cool: Actually works great and is more fun .

Years ago , my wife accepted that the katana's purchase price should be allowed to come out of our tool and building supply / yard maintenance budget rather than my personal entertainment budget . :):thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

So , I always favor defining everything as "tool" over "weapon " , whenever remotely feasible . :rolleyes:
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I’d pay money to see you whacking grass in your yard with a katana. Before the dudes with the padded ambulance show up. :D
 
AntDog said:
I’d pay money to see you whacking grass in your yard with a katana. Before the dudes with the padded ambulance show up. :D
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:) I'd make a video if I had the equipment and was more exhibitionist . Or maybe I mean narcissist ? :confused: Maybe : Loincloth and katana , oldman weedwacker U tube .

Privacy , elbow room , and freedom to do crazy stuff ...major priorities in my life all along .
That's part of why I chose to live in a very rural , semi-wilderness area , sparsely populated with mostly "deplorables" as distant neighbors . :cool::thumbsup::thumbsup:

We have ~100acres total , most of it mature wooded , steep hills . ~10acres cleared pasture .

Very common to hear firearms going off around these hills , all year long . July 4th sounds like a war . The wild wild mid-west .

I used to regularly fire my AR-15 and two G19's , rapid fire . Sometimes 100's of rds at a time . Most neighbors thought I had full auto and I never said different .

I'm older now and less feisty . Closest neighbors have sheep (literal animal sheep , not sheeple) . I try to be a considerate neighbor . They shoot more than I do now . :p

Nobody gonna say or do :poop: if they see me with a mere katana, attacking the weeds and brush . They're just glad I don't have a tank or ma deuce . :eek::D
 
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Back on OP thread topic : Cold Steel make a bunch of different quasi-swordlike "machetes " . :)

Not great as swords for sure , but I suspect lots of actual swords used in warfare around the world historically were just a bad or worse made ? o_O

Regardless , I enjoy using my Thai Machete as both . :cool::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 
Mr opinionated said:
Yes or no answer
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Maybe ? Depends on who exactly you ask . :confused:

Maybe there is a "sword community " , but I'm petty sure opinions would vary somewhat . :rolleyes:

I only know enough , to know that I don't know enough , to justify having an opinion . o_O That won't stop me .

But I do think that if you base this on intent of use as a weapon vs agricultural implement , the distinction is blurry in history .

Warfare at some level has been the periodic norm for all of recorded history and probably long before .

There were also dangerous animals , robbers , violent crimes , hunting etc weapons uses .

Various kinds of machetes vs swords , I doubt , were always clearly distinct or specialized to any one purpose . Metal and the skills to make into tools / weapons were costly and rare .

I suspect , in real life , most things got used for whatever needed doing for survival . Most people didn't have the wealth to reserve much worked metal to any one use .

Not so very long ago , people sometimes burned their house down just to retrieve and reuse the nails . Think on that a bit .
 
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The industrial revolution and the improvement in communications that came with it, lead most nations to create large standing professional armies. With that came centralized procurement of equipment and uniformed standard regulation patterns. One of the common themes that we see in all of these organizations throughout the 19th century is the need for some sort of edge tool/sidearm. They appeared under various names as pioneer, artillery, engineering, band, or medical sidearms; and are additional joined by a waves of similar sword bayonets.

The shape and size of these things varied greatly and tended to flow with the international fashion. But, that so much energy and treasure was put into equipping formations with these, is a clear indication that machete-like tool/sword use weapons had always been a common and important piece of military equipment. The trend continued all the way through to the development of reliable multi-round, cartridge handguns, which along with rapid fire carbines, eventually largely displaced the short sword from the sidearm role.

Although, we still see vestiges of these, like the khukuri and the various modern edge survival/bailout tools.

n2s
 
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Mecha said:
It was a great opportunity to show that they do actually function well! :D
Wow what a badass blade! (Also I think machetes should have their own forum, but I'm biased because machetes are my favorite)


The @FortyTwoBlades Kingfisher is a perfect case study for this machete/sword question. He's a machete expert, and he wanted to make a machete that functions more like a sword. So what were the changes?

1. It got longer
2. It got a tip for thrusting, which also imparted a distal width taper for more quick, lively action along the blade's length
3. It got a handle that gives significant hand protection, and can even be used to beat some ass or catch a blade
4. More weight in the handle/guard zone neutralizes the weight distribution, rather than being forward-heavy for cutting plants.

The blade can still be used to do machete tasks, but the design changes made it significantly better as a weapon than a typical agricultural machete, expanding the ways and speed it can be used to damage flesh and protect the user's hand from a counter strike.

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ChattanoogaChop said:
I recently got a Czech machete that feels very "sword-like"; I love it. Also Condor makes some machetes that could almost be considered hybrids.
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"Czechoslovakia," nice that's an old one.
 
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