Photos Modding a Heavy Duty Machete

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kwackster

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Dec 23, 2005
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Recently i bought these 2 Cold Steel Heavy Duty machetes as modding projects.
One of them now looks a bit like a slender barong with a swedge (maybe this will be sharpened later on, don't know yet)
The contoured & resurfaced polypropylene handle has a bit of a negative angle to the blade which so far seems to work well, but i haven't chopped wood with it yet.
The convex edge measures around 30 degrees inclusive and is armhair shaving sharp.











 
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What remains of the second Heavy Duty machete after completely reshaping both the blade & the handle, pictured here below a slightly modified kukri machete.



The idea was to combine an only 2.0 mm thick & lightweight machete blade with a modified kukri form which uses a more forward placed & pronounced belly as it's sweet spot, with an aggressively slicing forward curve as a follow-up.
It's in the testing phase and i'm still working on it, but so far it has already proven to be very effective as well very easy on the wrist joints due to it's low weight.
With a 45 degree angled hit at speed the blade will cleanly pass through a wrist size young birch tree/sapling, almost without feeling the impact.
Thinner springy stuff that isn't immediately severed by a direct hit by the belly gets sliced by the forward curve, but most of the time the combination of a high tip speed with that curvy sweet spot is more than enough to do the job.
The current convex edge is done on 400 grit wet & dry SiC paper on a rubber backing using WD-40 oil as a lubricant, and measures ~30 degrees inclusive.
The handle is contoured & fuzzy finished with the woodrasp.

Playing around with crosshatching using a waterproof marker to check on the location & size of the sweet spot as well as the effectiveness of the slicing forward curve after a chopping session.

Before:


After:


Currently busy with giving the forward portion of the blade somewhat of a lenticular cross section to further improve upon pass-through cuts.
So far i'm having a lot of fun for only very little money, :)

Current specs:

Overall length: 51,2 cm
Blade length: 37,5 cm
Blade thickness: 2.0 mm
Weight: 386,9 grams
Steel type: 1055 carbon steel
Hardness: ~56 HRC
Handle material: polypropylene
 
That's indeed a good comparison regarding the first machete.

On the second machete i like to think of it as a synergistic mix between the thin & lightweight machete blade, the angled & front heavy shape of the kukri, plus the curved sweet spot of a Thai E-Nep working in conjunction with an agressively slicing front curve at the end of the blade to make maximum use of the high possible tip speed.
Together with the specifically shaped & grippy handle this makes for a highly efficient chopper.
Also not unimportant in the long run: it takes only a minimum of strength to wield.
 
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The tang definitely goes past the lanyard hole.
Hold a Magnet at the end of the handle, and you'll feel/notice it.
I have a lot of trust in that type of handle. Very tough and durable.
And no hand contact with the metal tang, which is a plus to me.
 
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fishface5 said:
Very cool, how do the 2 compare to each other in use?
Click to expand...

I never used the first one for anything as it became a birthday present for a friend of mine, and he keeps it next to his bed for home defense purposes.
The second one is rapidly becoming one of my favorites for trail clearing, even though it's not finished yet.
 
Just came home from a camping & hiking holiday in France, mostly in the Morvan nature reserve, which itself lies in the Burgundy region.
Still not very touristic when compared to the south of France, and especially if you like good quality local food, various wines & beers i would highly recommend this region.
The beef cattle you can see in the background of the pictures are of the Blonde D'Aquitaine breed, which thrives in the area and are a prime source of high quality beef.

The modified machete again came in very handy during our hikes, as some trails were almost grown shut.
It devours brambles, various types of green undergrowth, as well as both thin & thick saplings with just a flick of the wrist.
Thinner trees with a thickness the size of a grown man's upper arm take just a few hits at speed for them to fall over.
Because of the efficient design of the thin blade together with the high tip speed this machete bites very deep, so consequently on thick wood i do have to wiggle the blade free after each hit, but that is to be expected.


 
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