Cold Steel 12" Sax Machete

J

JNieporte

Joined
Nov 1, 2004
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Today's review is a Cold Steel machete. This is one of the machetes from the new line, and is made in China (as opposed to the older ones, made in South Africa). This is the 12" Sax Machete, model CS97SA125. It's also available with an 18" blade, and is a re-design of the traditional Scramasax (which it resembles a little bit). In-store price is around $11, and it incudes a sheath (unlike the South African-made models). This model weighs just over one pound (16.3 ounces).

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The Handle: The Sax' handle is made of black polypropylene (hard plastic). It's 5-5/8" long from the very end of the handle to the blade's start. The handle is 7/8" thick, and there's 4-1/4" of usable space between the guard and the little retention butt. This is enough for me, and my hands are pretty big. The texturing is checkered on the sides.
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The front and back of the handle is textured with simple lines...
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The lanyard hole is large enough for non-gutted 550 cord, which I recommend so you don't lose your tool if you lay it down in the woods.
The machete is a bit blade-heavy, as the balance point is about 1/4 of the way up the blade. I'm not sure if this is a full-tang design, but it has held up nicely for me. In-hand, it fits me very nicely.
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The Blade: The Sax' blade is made of 1055 carbon steel with a Rockwell hardness of about 54-56. It measures 12" long with an 11-3/4" edge. It's just a hair under 1/8" thick. The blade is covered with a baked-on anti-rust finish, which is black. This finish covers the edge as well, which came pretty dull. The machete had a usable edge for the woods, but would really benefit from a bastard file or a belt sander for a really nice edge.

The left side of the blade tang is stamped as follows:
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And the right side tang...
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After a rough grind on a belt sander, then a ceramic stick, the edge really came to life. The blade is best described as a modified wharncliffe, and the point really lends itself to piercing.
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This is a cardboard mailing tube (1/8" thick) that I let the Sax machete fall into by its own weight from 12"; no stabbing. It penetrated just over 1/2".
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I rather like this blade shape for general use, and as a machete, it's still pretty good. I'd like to have more steel toward the tip of the blade to help out in chopping, but the Sax machete still performs very well.
 
The Sheath: The Sax machete comes with a simple black nylon sheath. It's 17-1/2" long overall, and 18" long with the machete inserted. It's heavily-stitched and there are steel rivets along the sides, as well as a plastic safety toe at the bottom. The handle can be secured with the snap closure, but I've found it to be unnecessary when attached to a belt in the woods.
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The belt loop is sewn to the back, and will accomodate a belt up to 3-1/2" wide belt.
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For me, this wide loop hasn't caused any migration problems. The button snap is held on with a single rivet, and can be rotated for a different placement of the snap. The sheath isn't designed for this, but it can be done, so don't do it too often or you'll wear the material down.

The back of the sheath, showing the belt loop...
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Overall, the sheath is okay. It's not one of those lightweight flea-market deals for sure and it gets the job done. The machete can be inserted in the sheath one way only (the way shown in the first photo of this post).

This cut was made with just the weight of the machete from a height of 12". Material is a 1/8" thick cardboard mailing tube. The blade went in about 1-1/2" down (from a 2-1/8" wide blade) and bit 1/4" deep.
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I like the Sax Machete. To me, the 12" blade length makes it a lightweight, yet heavy-duty chopper for the woods. The Cold Steel machetes are made a little thicker than traditional machetes, and won't flex as much. I like this for more dense vegetation as well as soft woods. For lighter-weight vines and weeds and such, I'd say to stick with a traditinal style (Tramontina, Ontario, etc.) machete. Try one out and see how you like it.

Compared to a Tramontina 18" machete...
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Thnaks for sharing. Seems not bad at all especially for the price. Wait for testing results on the field, if possible. Alfredo
 
So wait--the handle on yours is hard polypropylene? I have a barong machete from the first year they started making them and it has a kraton handle. The texturing looks exactly the same as mine. :confused:
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
So wait--the handle on yours is hard polypropylene? I have a barong machete from the first year they started making them and it has a kraton handle. The texturing looks exactly the same as mine. :confused:
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Yes, it's polypropylene. From the Cold Steel website...

Sax Machete:
http://www.coldsteel.com/saxmachetes.html
"The Sax blade style is centuries old and hails from ancient Northern Europe, or what is now Scandinavia. Like its historical counterpart, it has a wide blade and straight cutting edge and the characteristic downward sloping point. The Cold Steel Sax Machete is available in 12 and 18-inch blade lengths and comes complete with a Cordura sheath.

Specifications 12" Model 18" Model
Weight: 16.3 oz. 22.3 oz.
Thickness: 3mm 3mm
Handle: 5 5/8" 5 5/8"
Overall: 17 5/8" 23 5/8"
Handle: Polypropylene Handles On Both Models"

Barong Machete:
http://www.coldsteel.com/barongmachetes.html
"The Barong, with its unique leaf shaped blade, is common throughout all of Southeast Asia. Very often it is used for utilitarian purposes to clear jungles or as an agricultural tool, but it is also known as a savagely effective weapon of warfare. We at Cold Steel admire the Barong and are proud to offer it here as a Machete in 12 and 18-inch blade lengths complete with a Cordura sheath.

Specifications 12" Model 18" Model
Weight: 16.9 oz. 23.3 oz.
Thickness: 3mm 3mm
Handle: 5 5/8" 5 5/8"
Overall: 17 5/8" 23 5/8"
Handle: Polypropylene Handles On Both Models"

Maybe the first issues of the Barongs were made in South Africa, in which case they'd probably be made of Zytel or Kraton. I know that the Kukri and Heavy Machetes that I own have polypropylene handles, and those are made in South Africa.
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All of the ones made in the China factory (your tang stamp will say CHINA if this is the case) are made of polypropylene. From what I hear from the dealer I frequent, the China-made models are being discontined (which is why they're on Close-Out).
 
Thanks for the review. I have wondered how well those would actually work out in the woods and debated picking one up to try out.
 
Very cool! Thanks for the review. I like the looks of that machete, been thinking about adding one of those to my stable. :thumbup:
 
The grips are Kraton and soft on both of my Cold Steel Bowie models. My 12" is one of the most used around my home. The 18" I've never used but I figure its as useful as the smaller one. I find the deals from Cold Steel on Machete's to be quite good. They seem to hold up well and they are not expensive considering you get a sheath with the purchase, which is nice when you stop to realize you'd spend more for the same size tool after having to buy a sheath separately. Like most machetes they come dull allowing the user to put the kind of edge on it they prefer. Mine was tip top after a few passes on my 1x30 belt grinder followed by a buff on the cardboard wheel to knock off the burr. For the money these are fairly capable. They have discontinued the bowie version. I'm not sure why but if you prefer that one get one while they are still available.

STR
 
martineden said:
Thnaks for sharing. Seems not bad at all especially for the price. Wait for testing results on the field, if possible. Alfredo
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Alfredo;
I've used the Sax a little bit, but I've not really thumped on it as much as I'd like. My impressions:
-The 12" blade is thick and heavy, and is better-suited for dead wood, soft wood, and vines that are thicker than a finger.
-For light vegetation, and I'm talking about anything thinner than your finger, is better chopped with a traditional (longer and thinner blade, more steel towards the tip) machete like the Tramontina pictured.
-The Sax unsheaths and re-sheaths easily in the woods, and doesn't snag on branches. Nice.
-Adding a brightly-colored lanyard or cord is a must. The all-black blade and handle make it easy to lose if you place it on the ground or even up against a tree, and even sharpening the edge to a shiny white won't help much in this area.
-If you need to dig for some reason, the Sax' tip will serve admirably. It's not a shovel, but mine didn't roll or chip when I dug out a hole 10" deep and 6" in diameter.
-Batoning proved uneventful. No chips or rolling of the edge, and it went through everything I could put in front of it. My baton consistently hit about 3/4 of the way down the blade, and I found this to be the "sweet spot".
-The Sax throws very poorly. I tried just for fun. It will stick every time if you can get the tip to hit the tree, but I had difficulty with this.
 
I like the modified Wharcliffe style myself although the Barong has my favorite balance.
Thanks for the info JNieporte.
 
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