Thread: Machete

I made this machete for one of the members here. This is actually the very first thing that was commissioned when I started my business. It took a while before the stars aligned. This is a working man's machete. I finished it to 320 or 400 grite before HT, and then left the fire scale on it. I like the black look, and it helps protect against moisture and sap. Not unimportant for something that is going to be actually used.

It would look sweet with a 1000 grit hand polish, but after half an hour of use, it would all be for naught. I did the heat treatment with my oven. Takes a while to bring it to temperature, but otherwise it would be very hard to get such a long piece heated evenly. I tempered it like I always do, but after tempering I took it out and immediately put a Bunsen burner on the spine to bring down the temper of the body of the machete to make it more impact resistant.

The handles are camo pattern micarta, with glow in the dark liners between the micarta and the blade. I got the freedom to make it the way I thought it should be made, and being a kid of the 80s, I think that everything gets better if it has glow in the dark.

I did some initial testing today. If the weather is ok, then tomorrow I'll make a video featuring some pointless destruction of wooden objects.