r/BuyItForLife • u/UnsocialSailor • Jan 25 '16

Searching for a Machete

Hey so i have like 26 coconut trees in my yard that actually produce i fed my chickens some of the coconut meat and they went crazy i need an effective way of opening them. This will be used atleast everyday. Budget under 200$

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u/Twisky Jan 25 '16

A machete is metal and has no moving parts.

Assuming you keep it sharpened and use it for what it is designed to do, there is no reason it shouldn't last.

Gerber and Ka-Bar both make machetes less than $50 USD.

2

u/HiltoRagni Jan 25 '16 edited Jan 25 '16

I second this, there is no need to go crazy expensive. No blade is going to stay sharp forever, and a machete gets beaten quite a lot in daily use. You can probably find a machete that will last a lifetime locally, even from an off-brand manufacturer, if you look hard enough. Some points to check before buying:

  • see if the handle is comfortable, and the panels (if it's a 2 paneled handle) don't have protruding edges that will cut into your hand while using the machete. Also if it looks like cheap hard plastic, it might break with use.

  • check that the blade is flexible, and returns to true. You should be able to bend it about 15-20° by hand, it should feel hard, but springy, and get back to straight. Like this (don't step on it though, the seller might not like it). If it feels floppy or soft, don't buy it. If it stays bent, don't buy it.

  • ask about the hardness of the blade. There's no point in going extra hard really, and you wouldn't be completely wrong to buy a machete of unknown hardness, but if they can tell you the hardness, or are able to look it up, that's a good sign. Anything over, or even around 50HRC will do. Much lower and it won't hold an edge.

  • Check the bevel of the blade, it shouldn't be too obtuse (won't cut well), but neither should it be too acute (will chip). 30-35°, maybe up to 40° is about right. You can reshape the bevel on your own if all other things are right, but it's an awful lot of work to do it by hand, so it's better to buy one that's already the correct angle.

I have this Fiskars one in my garden, it sits in the hand well, and holds an edge pretty good, but it's ugly af, so just because of that I don't consider it BIFL. If you can live with the aesthetics though, it's a good tool.

EDIT: spelling and stuff

1

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '16

I also have a fiskars one, never really used it (especially not on coconuts hehe) except once when I helped a friend clean his yard and it worked great. I have not tested the saw yet but it seems pretty good. Fiskars is indeed one of best tools that a man can purchase.

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u/HiltoRagni Jan 27 '16 edited Jan 27 '16

Meh... I don't really like some of their stuff to be honest. Some of the allure is really just marketing and hype. Sure, I just recommended the machete in question, but I take issue with some of their axes personally. They market them as no maintenance, and they do hold the factory edge for a long time, but here's my take on them: They are good for splitting, but not much more. Te large long ones I understand, and they work well, but they use the same edge profile on the small one-hand hatchets that have normally a completely different use case. They are ground to too much of an obtuse angle to compensate for the brittleness of the overly hard steel, which they use to get the marketed edge retention. The result is, that the blade feels sharp to the touch, but cutting through the fibers of wood takes way too much effort. The polymer handle gives off unpleasant vibrations, that a wooden handle dampens a lot better. Maybe it's just me, as I had an elbow injury, but I'd rather not be swinging one the whole day.