When does a fixed blade become a machete....

steve-in-kville

steve-in-kville

Joined
Dec 25, 2001
Messages
1,139
.... and/or becomes a sword? Ever since I got my Condor fixed blade and machete, I'm looking add another big blade.

Discuss.
 
"For each of the hobbits he chose a dagger, long, leaf-shaped, and keen, of marvelous workmanship, damasked with serpent-forms in red and gold. They gleamed as he drew them from their black sheaths, wrought of some strange metal, light and strong, and set with many fiery stones. Whether by some virtue in these sheaths or because of the spell that lay on the mound, the blades seemed untouched by time, un-rusted, sharp, glittering in the sun.

'Old knives are long enough as swords for hobbit-people,' he said. 'Sharp blades are good to have, if Shire-folk go walking, east, south, or far away into dark and danger.' Then he told them that these blades were forged many long years ago by Men of Westernesse: they were foes of the Dark Lord, but they were overcome by the evil king of Carn Dûm in the Land of Angmar. "

Sorry.

Answer - when you use it as one.
 
Machete-Danny-Trejo-Machete-Kills.jpg
 
Why do people start a thread then say... discuss :confused: on topic, when you start using it like one
 
A machete (/məˈʃɛti/; Spanish pronunciation: [maˈtʃete]) is a large cleaver-like knife, similar to a kukri. The blade is typically 32.5 to 45 centimetres (12.8 to 17.7 in) long and usually under 3 millimetres (0.12 in) thick. In the Spanish language, the word is a diminutive form of the word macho, which means male or strong and was used to refer to sledgehammers.[1] In the English language, an equivalent term is matchet,[2] though it is less commonly known. In the English-speaking Caribbean, such as Jamaica,[3] Barbados, Guyana, Grenada and in Trinidad and Tobago, the term "cutlass" is used for these agricultural tools.[4]
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Most later versions of the Bowie knife had a blade of at least 8 inches (20 cm) in length, some reaching 12 inches (30 cm) or more, with a relatively broad blade that was an inch and a half to two inches wide (4 to 5 cm) and made of steel usually between 3⁄16 to 1⁄4 in (4.763 to 6.350 mm) thick.

I imagine there's overlap.

This is a broken corn knife I got at a yard sale and ground the tip on.



I use it as a machete for yard work all the time.

Corn knives, agricultural knives for cutting corn come in many styles and often look like flat ended machetes or cane knives.

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I imagine mine looked like this originally.

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A rose by any other name and all that.




"That's not a knife, now this is a knife."

 
A Swiss army machete.. is it a slippie or a locking one like the one hand trekker??

A sak could be used as a machete but I wouldn't recommend it haha unless your doing it for an arm workout..

marcinek said:
So if I whack at light vegetation with a SAK, it becomes a machete!?! Wow! Cool!
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shinyedges said:
A Swiss army machete.. is it a slippie or a locking one like the one hand trekker??

A sak could be used as a machete but I wouldn't recommend it haha unless your doing it for an arm workout..
Click to expand...

Precisely my point. Any knife just doesn't turn into to a machete by using it to do tasks that are done by a machete. Words have meaning. :thumbup:

Is there an exact definition? Some Platonic ideal machete? No. But we all know what one is. And it isn't a Bowie, and it isn't a kukri, and it isn't a sword etc. And vice versa. And all those definition are independent of what is bring dfone with the knife at the time.
 
I wacked off some seed heads of some flowers (annuals) the other day with my SAK, guess it's a machete. No wonder I like machetes!

Machete vs big knife..... good question. Certainly a machete IS often a big knife. But the opposite does not seem to be the case.

Where do I draw the line in "inches"? I have a Condor Kumunga which has a 9" blade but it is decidedly knife-like except for a big over-sized handle. I tend to think of it as a knife vs machete, but I use it mostly for wacking limbs and stuff. But, I could see myself using it easily as a camp knife as it is big and strong.

So, my break point on "machete" is about a 11"-12" blade such as the small ones that Ontario makes that I thought were the bee's knees until I used one..... sucked is an apt word. My Condor Pack Golok IS a machete.
 
marcinek said:
Precisely my point. Any knife just doesn't turn into to a machete by using it to do tasks that are done by a machete. Words have meaning. :thumbup:

Is there an exact definition? Some Platonic ideal machete? No. But we all know what one is. And it isn't a Bowie, and it isn't a kukri, and it isn't a sword etc. And vice versa. And all those definition are independent of what is bring dfone with the knife at the time.
Click to expand...

I agree, but the edges do tend to blur when pushed. A short sword, large knife and short heavy machete could all be pretty much indistinguishable from one another.
 
8754fa54b422fbf3a0978049a74b32b4.jpg


W without doing any research I'd say:

Fixed blade
Tip with lots of belly
Wide blade
large blade(length) but don't know where to draw the line, to me >15"
Made for swinging at vegetation
 
Damn it I had a rely typed out and then the browser closed out and I lost it :rolleyes:

Short of it is... I was being a little snarky and not literal

A machete is a fixed blade , and a fixed blade of adequate size could be used as a machete.
marcinek said:
Precisely my point. Any knife just doesn't turn into to a machete by using it to do tasks that are done by a machete. Words have meaning. :thumbup:

Is there an exact definition? Some Platonic ideal machete? No. But we all know what one is. And it isn't a Bowie, and it isn't a kukri, and it isn't a sword etc. And vice versa. And all those definition are independent of what is bring dfone with the knife at the time.
Click to expand...
 
A large fixed blade and machete are BOTH knives and can be used interchangeably

A hammer and socket wrench are not both the same tool such as machete IS a large knife..

And just for arguments sake if someone uses a socket wrench to hammer nails.. then for all intents and purposes it is a "hammer" while its being used as such..
 
shinyedges said:
A large fixed blade and machete are BOTH knives and can be used interchangeably.
Click to expand...

Not as definitions. Unless you choose to ignore the meanings of words. And if you do, why have different words for machete, kukri, katana, beef splitter, gladius etc etc etc at all?
 
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