Machete for trail clearing?

[W I S N E R !]

Despite the advice of the majority of posters here, it’s clear the guy just wants to swing a machete in the woods.

Stay safe out there and don’t scare the locals!

[Ian]

Leave some trace

[DAN-Y]

Has usb port for charging your electronics, light weight yet powerful enough to get those low growing poison oak.

Use your Australian knife for the bigger stuff.

 

[Ken Thompson]

Probably will burn this summer

[Jim Colten]

I can’t say how our experience would handle your conditions but:

1. a hand pruner
2. geared Fiskars lopper with 1.5″-2″ capacity
3. good bow saw with 8″ cutting capacity
4. small shovels (needed only of there are spots with drainage issues)

is all we’ve needed on 10 years of twice annual maintenance trips in boreal forest on the canadian shield

 

[Pedestrian]

To the OP:

Whatever you do, please carry a decent camera and record yourself during the hacking, a couple of days later and a week later. Would love to see the epic PO reactions!

Might take you a few weeks of steroids to recover from the reaction so we’ll wait for the videos.

;-)

[Aaron]

I do have a couple Shimano action cams I bought for bike racing, used a few times and never learned how to edit the footage. Perhaps I’ll give it another go next time I feel like pushing through an overgrown trail.

I’m a bit disappointed to hear so many people here with such a distaste for machetes. Makes me wonder if most of you just think they are silly, or have actually tried one or several for sufficient time to become proficient and still disliked them. Maybe I should have found a hunting forum; perhaps they are more inclined to whack their way into thick bushes.

[Ian]

Aaron,

A machete is without a doubt the best trail tool known to man.

I think you should buy a few and use them.

As to the negative comments, the reasons are varied but it basically boils down to this being a group of washed up hikers who are too old to use a machete, and do not want to see you live your best life with a machete on the trail.

I heartily recommend for you to buy the machete you intended on buying before creating this thread.   It’s rated really well by the hunting, UL, bushcraft, and Camp Crystal Lake alumni.

[Lester Moore]

I’m a bit disappointed to hear so many people here with such a distaste for machetes.

As a LW and UL community, much of the distaste for machetes is likely due to weight. Now if they made the blades out of graphene, then I’d consider buying one.

[Jerry Adams]

Ian is so funny, that’s why I continue to read BPL : )

I used machete when I was about 21 years old.  Great for whacking through blackberry vines to find survey markers.

But you can whack your leg on the follow through.  If you think about that ahead of time you can probably avoid that.  At least that’s what they told me before they let me use one.

Anyone that posts on the internet about using a machete to clear trail has to expect a lot of humorous comments.  Just the nature of the internet.  Somewhere in there, there were some useful comments.

I’d like to see video of machete use.

[Iago Vazquez]

I’m not familiar with the area, so I cannot give you real advice. When I was kid, sometimes we had to get through brush to either make our way through the land, clear a path or to simply clear growth on a plot of land. This was our tool of choice. If the brush was heavy we used it together with a 4 foot “fork”. See below.

I will tell you that we all whacked our legs from time to time. Luckily for me I always hit myself with the blunt extension before the sharp edge. I did see folks cult themselves, mostly minor cuts. Stress on mostly, as I did see a couple of bad ones. A machete scares the crap out of me to be honest.

When we had to clear really, really thick brush by hand we switched to the long handled version. I never saw or heard of anyone cutting themselves with this. I have probably spent 200 hours of my life hacking away with it. I think that the fact that it’s two handed vs one handed operation is what leads to its much increased safety.

 

[Aaron]

I got my machete, feels scary as f*** lol. Gonna plan a trip to go practice for a bit so I’ll survive the zombie apocalypse.

[David Thomas]

I’m not down on machetes overall – I think they’re fabulous, multi-purpose tools.  If I was sent back 25,000 years ago with only one tool, it would be a full axe, but my second choice might well be a machete – you can cut small stuff quickly, big stuff eventually, defend yourself, and (with great whetstones) shave with it.  Lash one to a hockey-stick and you can cut through a foot of blubber on a bowhead whale (I’ve done that).  There’s a reason they’re throughout the second- and third-world: you get a lot of bang for the buck.

But for trail clearing, there’s a certain size of branch that can be but very quickly with a machete while smaller stuff bends out of way too much.  And bigger stuff needs multiple whacks, looks ugly afterwards, and a good pull saw would have been less exertion and safer.

It’s kind of like throwing a tennis ball for a golden retriever – your arm will get tired before the shrubbery does.

That said, I’m an engineer in Alaska.  A Mexican, Brazilian or Ugandan field hand could do far more, and with less effort, than I can.

If you want some excitement, try trail-clearing with a machete from a moving dog sled.  I’ve done that (you’re moving too fast to use anything else), and it made me nervous.

Wear jeans and closed-toe shoes at a minimum.  Logger’s chaps would be even safer.  These reviewers seem a bit racist towards the Chinese, but while a superficial cut was sustained (by a log) in their test, that was a *large* chainsaw going full speed when it was pressed into the chaps.  I was impressed by how quickly it was stopped in a tough challenge.  For $34:

[Ken Thompson]

Take some work gloves.

[DAN-Y]

Black & Decker 18-Volt Cordless Chain Saw CCS818

Weighs 6.2 lbs
18-volts
8″ bar and chain
Up to 150 1-1/2″ cuts on a single charge
7″ cut capacity

I have one…..love it. I take it with when I go camping. I clean up the campground sites and gather my firewood. Wood is my goto fuel :)

[Ken Thompson]

No machinery in wilderness, duh.

[Gary Dunckel]

I also can’t quite understand the negativity here about machetes. When I lived in Saudi Arabia in the late ’80s, I spent all of my vacation time (and money) travelling the planet. Europe, Asia, and Africa were all very accessible. While I did a number of ‘civilized’ trips to Europe, most of my jaunts were to isolated places in SE Asia, India, and Africa. I especially liked to hike in jungles, and my old, rusty generic U.S. Army machete was used a lot. Memorable jungles included the following:

1. Malaysia’s Taman Negara N.P. (the planet’s oldest rain forest), where I hiked mainly, you know, to see what I could see.
2. Bushwhacking 17 miles through the dense Ituri forest of N.E. Zaire (now called Congo) to reach a remote Mbuti pygmy village.
3. An elephant safari trip in India’s northern terai forest (the machete was necessary when I had to get down off the elephant and go into the bush for diarrhea relief, and to provide protection for any chance encounter with a cobra).
4. A day hike in Madagascar where we chased down lemurs and those beautiful, docile boas.
5. Whacking through thick vegetation in Rwanda to try to find a gorilla or two.
6. Numerous walks in forested parts of Africa, and in my beloved Costa Rica after I returned to the States.

I got fairly good at clearing 1/2 inch brambles and vines to more easily get through fairly thick vegetation. I don’t think I quite made it to pro status, but with my guides leading, I was able to clean up behind them, much to the delight of those that followed.

So, yeah, machetes are quite handy (and pretty cheap).

[Ian]

Experience here is the best teacher.  I’m not against machetes per se.   David touched on it as there’s a sweet spot as to what branches they are effective on and others (too small and springy or too large) that aren’t.

I mostly used them in tall grasses where they absolutely are the best tool for the job.

I would bring a small file though or other means to sharpen it.   After an hour or so of constant work, I really started to notice the loss of edge which translates into working harder than necessary

[Roger Caffin]

After an hour or so of constant work, I really started to notice the loss of edge which translates into working harder than necessary

That means poor steel – a cheap sheet metal stamped-out machete. Very common.
My machete was made by Brades of England, 100+ years ago, out of hot forged carbon steel, 1/4″ thick. I can shave with it (yes, I have), and I can open steel 44 gal drums with it (yes, I have). And it keeps its edge. But I doubt you can buy them any more.

Cheers

[DAN-Y]

One of these will top all the rest:

[Roger Caffin]

Very Hollywood.
Very cliche.
Very boring.

Cheers

[Adam Kilpatrick]

Just a note that Mick Dundee’s knife would be illegal in Australia. You can’t carry around a knife like that…only for “work purposes”…and there’s not much work use for a machete in a concrete jungle (or anywhere, really).

[Daryl and Daryl]

“Ian is so funny, that’s why I continue to read BPL”

me too

[DAN-Y]

Very Hollywood.
Very cliche.
Very boring.

Cheers

The MACHETE Roger, look at the machete. Double edged, one for sawing the large limbs. Can be used to ward off cougars, bear and kangaroo. :) Watch it again LOL :-)

[Roger Caffin]

All I can remember were the repeated huge petrol ‘pseudo-explosions’.
Personally, I prefer a chainsaw: I have 4 of them of different sizes. (I live on a farm with a lot of trees.)

Cheers

[Author]

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