A shot of the heavy duty machete pattern from the Barteaux Machete website :
The review consists of :
These machetes were donated for reviews by Marion David Poff. They are made from 0.1" stock, described by Barteaux as a high carbon tempered spring steel. The twelve inch one is 480 g and the eighteen inch 620 g. These are the heavy duty models with the protective D-guard grips. The machetes are flat stock, no primary grind. The edge is ground at roughly fifteen degree per side and the blade is the American Tanto profile popularized by Cold Steel. The handles are plastic, rounded, and decently ergonomic with a palm swell though the the side is abrasive.
The initial edges on both machetes were poor and both needed to be sharpened before any work was performed. With the origional profile sharpened to a fine finish the twelve inch Barteaux compared well against thst Camp and Trail machete from Ontario on light brush. On strawberry bushes the D-guard on the Barteaux was of significant value protecting the hand from the thorns. In general the grips on the Barteaux machete was found to be much more secure grip of the Ontario machete which is smooth and can get slippery in use. There was no significant difference noted in general cutting ability as the blades are of similar length and heft.
The eighteen inch Barteaux is much more efficient for this type of work due to reach able to cut much more vegetation on each pass. It is many times to one more productive than attemping such work with shorter knives such as the Ratweiler. In general the heavy duty Barteaux models are over built for grasses and other light brush. They cut it well enough when properly sharpened but lighter machetes have much lower fatigue is use. The light Tramontina machete and and #32L and #23W Martindale machetes were much mroe productive for this type of work in general. Barteaux also makes a lighter machete for this type of work.
On the smaller woods, fifteen or so feet in length with limbs up to half an inch in diameter, the twelve inch Barteaux machete had enough chopping ability to clear the branches in single and fluid cuts and in general was less fatiguing than the larger machete. The smaller machete could cut thicker and harder woods in a single chop and as well had much more reach so was more efficient per swing than smaller knives such as the Project I from Chris Reeves. A Busse Combat Battle Mistress, a heavier blade made from 0.275" thick stock with a full flat ground which tapers to a thin edge did generally outperform the twelve inch machete. The machete had a slight reach advantage of a couple of inches, but in general this didn't compensate for the higher cutting ability of the Battle Mistress which also had much better edge retention.
On larger woods, fifteen to thirty foot long sticks with limbs up to two inches thick, and especially in black spruce which is a denser and harder wood, the eighteen machete was much more productive than the twelve inch model and any of the shorter blades it was compared to including the Battle Mistress. Not only did the larger machete have more power on the swing by having a longer and heavier blade which allowed it to cut even the larger branches with just a couple of chops, the greater reach also allowed more proficient limbing as much more cutting could be performed with minimal bending. The machete was also found in general to outperform a a 20" Sirupati khukuri, able to clear the thicker branches in less swings.
The barteaux machetes were also used to clear a lot of dead wood, dried and seasoned branches, including full power swings with each blade. There were no problems ith brittle fracture as was seen on other large blades even on the hardest of the limbs which often cracked under the impact of the blade. There were also no issues with deformation or rippling as was seen on the Valiant Goloks.
The twelve inch Barteaux was comparable in chopping performance to the Busse Combat Battle Mistress on both scrap lumber and actual trees. The machete will easily cut through a 2x4 very efficiently and will take down small sticks of the size needed to build a shelter or start a fire in just a few chops. The Battle Mistress was more fluid in problematic wood and in general had much better edge retention.
The larger machete had much better chopping power, easily able to cut much mroe wood per chop than the Bruks Wildlife hatchet, however unless the wood was very clear and open grained like pine, the machete would bind so heavily that it was readily outperformed by the hatchet from a time and effort perspective. For most local woods the twelve inch machete was found to be much more efficient than the eighteen inch one for cutting thick woods.
Both machetes were used to split wood with the aid of a baton. They will bind more so than thicker blades, and care has to be taken in knotty wood as the blades will tend to flex rather than crack the wood apart as they lack the stiffness. The grips on the Barteaux were found to be more durable in this regard than the Ontarios handles which fractured under similar use. On really bad twisted grain wood it was more efficient to use the machetes to carve wedges and use them to split the wood.
The machetes have low strength due to the thin profile which reduces their ability to pry with the tip or through the blade body so they are less veratile in that regard compared to a thicker blade such as a khukuri. The thin spine also reduces the ability to use the blade as a hammer to drive a stake as the machete tends to just split the wood. The American Tanto profile however makes a decent sod cutter and the wide blades work well in scooping out soft dirt.
In regards to general utility work, with the edge adjusted to a suitable geometry they will work well cutting ropes, cardboard and such, however they are fairly awkward in use due to their size, especially the eighteen inch model. The shorter machete is more easier to handle though both machetes are outclassed for this type of work by a smaller blade like the Ratweiler which is much easier to control. The machetes however do work better as drawknives which is useful for wood shaping.
The initial edge bevels were uneven on both blades and there was a significant visible burr. The eighteen inch machete also had a spot just at the tanto point where the metal had discolored due to excessive heat in grinding and had an additional edge bevel of about 45 degrees on one side. It took an half an hour of honing with a bastard file on the twelve inch machete to even out the bevels and produce an edge that would readily slice paper. The edge still had a few places were the edge had irregularities about 0.2 - 0.4 millimeters deep left over from the initial grinding. On the eighteen inch blade a Dremel was used to remove the additional edge bevel and then a 200 grit Japanese silicon carbide waterstone was used to finish sharpen. This took about 15 minutes and produced an edge that would slice paper readily.
Later the edge on the twelve inch Barteaux machete was reduced to about ten degrees per side which produced a bevel of about a quarter of an inch wide. On hardwoods it tended to dent about 0.3-0.5 millimeters deep and about 4 millimeters long. The eighteen inch machete was thinned further to a bevel of about seven degrees per side and was about 3/8" wide. This edge was too weak to limb even fresh woods, and on the harder sprce branches the edge would deform to the side in centimeter long sections which were pushed 0.1- 0.2 millimeters to the side. The worst deflection seen was about half a centimer long and was deformed a full millimeter to the side. In general as the steel in these machetes is fairly soft, the origional edge bevel of about fifteen degrees per side needs to be maintained in the last bit of edge, about 1/8" or so wide to prevent deformation on hardwoods, and a relief grind above the edge will enhance cutting ability and ease of sharpening.
The grip security is high, enhanced by the shaping, checking and D-guard. The grips are also swelled nicely along the top and bottom and wide enough to give support so overall ergonomics are sound. The side checkering was not found to be abrasive on the smaller machete but on the longer one could be during heavier work. The handle completely encloses the tang so there is no contact with bare metal to readily conduct heat which can be uncomfortable in extreme temperatures.
There were no problems with the handle loosening as seen with the Ontarios however the material is softer and will get readily get torn up when impacting the sharp ends of broken hardwoods. The tears are a couple of millimeters in length and less than a millimeter in depth and can be easily fixed by applying a decent sandable epoxy. The grips are also very impact and vibration resistant and had no problem with chores that shattered the regard than the Ontarios grips under similar use.
The Barteaux machetes were initiall fairly blunt and took a fair amount of grinding to clean up and sharpen by hand. With the edges properly honed whey cut light grasses and other vegetation well but in general lighter blades would be more efficient. The 18" machete excelled for limbing and for other woody brush work and the 12" model worked well as a large knife as a hatchet replacement and was capable of solid performance working through thick woods.
With the origional edge profile of about 15 degrees per side the machetes can handle small diameter hardwoods with no significant denting. With the edge brought down to ten degrees per side the twelve inch machete starts to take visisble dends on hardwoods. With the blade on the the eighteen inch machete recut to about seven degrees per side, it took significant dents on medium density woods. The cutting performance increased rapidly with a lower edge bevel so a balance needs to be obtained between cutting ability and durability.
The Barteaux machetes come with a blade coating that resists wear from cutting wood and brush well and does a decent job at preventing rust as none was noted and the blade was never coated with any oil or rust inhibitor. However if the edge is left wet it will rust readily. As with all carbon blades it needs to be rinsed, dried and oiled if possible once the cutting is over.
Comments can be sent to : cliffstamp[REMOVE]@cutleryscience.com, and posted to the following threads :
| Last updated : | Thu Apr 24 13:40:27 NDT 2003 |
| Origionally written : | Thu Jun 1 21:06:04 NDT 2000 |