Machete Modifications?

Just finished mods to tip and handle on this 12" Martindale, and I really like it. maybe my favorite short machete. thick, stout blade like an Ontario, yet still light enough for extended use.
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I don’t change handles often, but I will add an actual bevel. I have rebeveled 2 of 3 of mine down to 5 to 6 degrees per side then add a secondary bevel. One I did with a belt sander the other with hand files. Both were very thin and had incredible cutting ability. One was a little too thin and took some damage so it had to be fixed. The other hit a rock and also has to be fixed.
 
What is the purpose of this kind of sheep foot modification of a Latin profile? How does it change the handling, striking "sweet spot" etc.?


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There's some other miscellaneous tricks and whatnot that one can do with that tip design, but that can be said of basically any blade shape, and those are sort of the 10,000 ft view of it. The rest is more difficult to describe and more evident only under specific circumstances.
 
This 12" Ontario has a modified tip and a reshaped handle after I removed the D guard. Orta work great for my camp field hunting blade, and I can find it with that orange handle!!

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if you want a qwick way to deal with a plastic handle, without the work of putting a nicely shaped wood handle on it...

use a file to shape it (like deltablade did above^) followed by a tennis grip wrap
 
wilson pro overgrip is/was the gold standard for many tennis players, but there are so many these days it depends on what you want...

for a grippy style, check out the yonex super grap
tourna tuff xl is also nice

those 3 brands tend to be my top 3
 
With plastic handles you can restore a gloss to them by flame-polishing with a torch or suitably hot heat gun after shaping.
 
3 Trams...the 12" and 16" (blade length) on the right and left have modified tips and handles. The 14" in the center will get the same treatment over this weekend. The 12 seems perfect to me for a camp knife, the 16 is a wicked cutter, yet a touch tip heavy. The 14 with tip and handle mods may be the best all-purpose. I will post some pix and thoughts after finishing the mods.

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