Sawback Machete

[fistful]

I was clearing out some vine, creeper and other nonsense today, using a Barteaux machete with a saw on the back. Especially because the machete blade was dull, I found that the saw cut instantly through most of the branches, which was especially useful in tight places. I have used the saw for other projects and found it most efficient. Anyone else have a Barteaux?

Now I will babble about my machete project. While stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, I ordered my machete from a hardware store in Florida. Only later did I notice that one of the local Army surplus places had two or three models readily available, although they didn't have the model I had ordered. I wish I had spent the sixteen bucks to get another one.

The machete has a thin blade about sixteen inches long, with a saw on the back. The blade was of carbon steel and had no coating or bluing. I obtained some cold blue from a local gun shop and treated it a few times. The handle was a bright orange color, and made of a soft plastic. It had a knuckleguard that made the saw rather difficult to use. The saw on my Leatherman cut through the guard most easily, and I was able to leave a bit of the guard in front as a quillion and left a little bit of a hook in the rear. I bought a black, military pattern plastic sheath for it, the type with built-in sharpener. The blade fits well when inserted upside down, and I put a length of nylon webbing through the belt frog, to wrap around the handle. I added a snap to the nylon webbing.

The difficult part was attempting to paint the handle green. I abused it thoroughly with sandpaper, and tried some paint for plastic car/airplane models. Doesn't stick very well.

 

[p35]

I like orange on brush clearing tools because it makes it a lot harder to misplace them in the undergrowth. I've never lost one permanently, but I used to waste a fair amount of time looking for stuff. If you want a blued one with a green handle, you'd probably be further ahead to just buy another already set up like that rather than trying to convert one. Barteaux does have a Web site where I think you can order them directly if you want.

 

[fistful]

Thanks for the info about their website, P. I also liked your tip on the Frost sheaths on another thread.

I wanted a green handle at the time, because I wanted to carry the machete on a rucksack when back-packing (not for military purposes), and I don't like wearing or carrying bright colors in the woods. Just seems wrong, somehow. Anyway, I'm plenty happy with my little project machete. I like it better having worked on it a bit.

 

[hso]

Try cloth tape instead of paint. It adds grippiness and obscures the color.

 

[fistful]

Interesting suggestion, hso. Where does one find such tape?

 

[GunGoBoom]

http://www.hockeymonkey.com/renfrewtape.html

Go to any local hockey pro shop - cloth tape is great for anything you want to get a good grip on - hockey stick, baseball bat, sword, knive, anything.

 

[p35]

Is that the same stuff they sell in the electrical section of Home Depot?

 

[hso]

Re. Home Depot, probably not. It's sometimes called "friction tape". Cotton cloth medical tape, although white, works. Black hockey stick tape is available off the web.

Many of the custom knifemakers that participate in the cutting competitions wrap the grip of their knives in this tape.

 

[p35]

They sell both the basic shiny plastic kind and a cloth type. My favorite for this sort of application, though, is the self sealing rubber tape meant for wet applications. It comes on a backing and chemically "melts" or seals to itself when two pieces of it touch. Wrap it at an overlapping angle and you end up with a ridged rubber grip. Cloth tape is good but too often I find that it leaves sticky gunk on my hands.