How sharp for a machete?

Shotgun

Shotgun

Joined
Feb 3, 2006
Messages
8,250
My buddy was told when he was in Belize that a machete shouldn't have too fine of an edge on it. I think he was just getting hustled by the guy who he had sharpen his machete for him but I see people who don't use sheaths and people who don't have a good edge on it. Should a machete just have a good filed edge on it or should one put a fine edge on it like you would with hatchets and knives?
 
I think that a machete should have as sharp and fine an edge as a knife or axe. Perhaps what the other guy meant had to do with the angle or thickness of the grind, so more like "not too thin of an edge".
 
Marcelo Cantu said:
I think that a machete should have as sharp and fine an edge as a knife or axe. Perhaps what the other guy meant had to do with the angle or thickness of the grind, so more like "not too thin of an edge".
Click to expand...

+1. All of my machetes are shaving sharp. They work better that way, and as long as you don't bring the angle below that which you'd use on a typical knife, it'll hold it well enough, too. ;)
 
Hard to tell 'cos I convex them. I will say that I don't put too much of an acute cutting edge on them. After all it's an impact tool of not the greatest steel in the world so expecting them to hold a very acute edge is asking a bit much. That said, there's much more to cutting power than how you sharpen the very edge. I take everything behind the cutting edge to an acute convex for good penetration, I just finish the very edge a little more obtuse. It's rather similar to sharpening thin and then going with a micro bevel for toughness only without the shoulders.
 
My trams are shaving sharp but the have what I would call a steep or radical convex edge. The Trams are light and I use them for cutting like a knife and light chopping duties like weeds and small green limbs while making walking sticks. On my bigger machetes, I like a good well formed edge but I don't try to get them quite as sharp.
 
you dont want the edges "thin" but you want them sharp as you can get.
thinness has nothing to do with how sharp the edge is but the angle at which its ground.
 
A buddy gave me a file ground like a knife. I " draw file" the blade with it.
It wont shave but a flick of the wrist will zip through a one inch branch. Good enough.
I'm not willing to spend a lot of time on a machete blade. I'm bashing rocks and digging dirt too much for that. I did do the " Mac trick" and Scandi a portion of it. Great for wire stripping and such............and opening those F$%@*)g blister packs.:mad:
 
IMHO it depends entirely on the blade. If it's relatively soft then a super fine edge isn't gonna last long and may chip or dent out. I am going to assume you mean a quality machete with good edge holding abilities... in which case as sharp as you can get it is how sharp you should get it. Machetes are for hacking through thick vegetation. So I can't image why a super sharp edge wouldn't be an advantage in that.
 
You can make them shaving sharp at a higher angle. Because of the soft steel in machetes, thin is not a good idea.
Scott
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top