Between the ages of 11 and 16 there was a guy up the street that referred to me as the kid with the machete.
I wore a WWII web belt let out all the way over my head and one shoulder so a machete hung just in front of my left arm pit very frequently for our woods/swamp escapades. the Machete was in a WWII Jay Dee plastic sheath and was made in Belgium and had a dead straight back like the sheath and fit it perfect. I was told it was from the gear of a WWII torpedo bomber crew and got it with some other stuff from a steel sea locker one of my Grandparents' neighbor (who had flown in such aircraft to the detriment of the Japanese) the next used most piece being a radio receiver head set that actually fit the jack of my old Silvertone Sears and Robuck tube AM radio allowing me to listen after lights out with out he folks knowing (Years later my Mom laughed that when she checked on me she knew what I was up to because the tubes glowed on the model airplanes around the radio and the wall behind)
That Machete saw a lot of use and almost as much misuse. There were some small dents on it from where one guy insisted his BB gun could penitrate the blade (well no, but they bounced back with plenty of oompf left) Used the back to hammer on various objects, dug a few holes with it and cut down hardwoods FAR to large to go after with such a thin blade (but down they came) and yes hammered the blade through larger chunks of wood to make better fire starting bits in what is cursed around here as batoning. I did carry a sheath knife and a pocket knife for progressively smaller chores but that machete was my go to steel.
My Scout troop did make fun of me as I carried that old beast on camp outs and hikes. As a kid I never owned an actual BSA hatchet or camp ax. I did own a cheap knock off of a Scout hatchet of the hollow metal tube handle variety(Sears again)....which on its very first camp out got used (without my permission) by another scout that got a dent in the handle tube and it was all down hill from there. I think the machete weighed less and did more anyway.
Eventually the handles on that old jewel of a machete cracked and crumbled apart and I have been "Justgonna" carve and shape some out of wood and apply with cutlery rivets for about the last ten years. The sheath was stolen when someone broke into a rental storage unit, but the machete was unsheathed in the trunk of my (shudder) Yugo in a box o'stuff so still with me.
I also have a GI issue Collins I am not that wild about in its canvas sheath (Yes I punched a hole in it near the tip) just like the one Uncle Sam once loaned me.
My current working Machete is a Chines cheapy I got for half price as a return at Tractor Supply Straight saw back (best saw on a blade I ever personally owned). It has lost one side of one of the two rivets but is still sturdy and used. It does not like black water oak, but then I have to be careful my ax does not skid off that stuff.
I actually used that Cane knife I was working last year on during some storm clean up back in the spring and for the grassy stuff and twigs smaller than my finger it worked great
If one grows up with them machetes are very useful. If folks otherwise survive the learning curve machetes can be useful to folks that came in late.
-kBob