Messed up machete ?

[Minimears]

Hi, I bought a Martindale No2 golok type machete (the british army issue one) about 6 months ago. A couple of days ago I decided to dig it out and do a bit of reworking on it as the factory shipped blades would have trouble cutting a block of butter.

I sanded down the handle to make the wood and tang flush, binned the old Martindale sheath in favour of The PLCE military version and began work on the blade.

I started by wet and dry papering the horrible grooves out left by the standard manufacturing process and set about work on the business edge.

I filed out the "bump" on the V shaped edge to resemble something more akin to an actual blade rather than a chisel but I think I got a bit carried away ! I am now left with a beautiful looking, but incredibly dull convex grind edge.

I am not too up on how to deal with a convex edge and was wondering if if they are useless on machetes or can I still get it nice and sharp to do the job it was intended for ?

 

[Peter_t]

you should be able to get a good egde. maby your making it too convexed or the angle is too steep?

pete

 

[JonathanD]

It does sound like the angle you are sharpening it at is too steep, or you are subconciously rolling the stone at the edge. Try a lower angle and the black marker method to see.

 

[Hedgehog]

Sounds like it is actually progressing quite well. A convex edge is most desirable on a machete. By removing the shoulders on the bevel you will get much better penetration.

Try setting the cutting edge at 25-30 degrees - file or sand this along the whole cutting edge to an even depth (1-3mm maybe?) then convex back from there. The temper on these is fairly soft so don't thin it too much at first - a bit of trial & error may be needed here - heavy blades can often be thinner than one would think (look at felling axes for example) depending on the steel. Err on the side of caution at first, rough it out, polish up the final edge (1mm) a bit & give it a bashing - see how the edge holds up, weather it tends to 'bind' easily (get stuck in the cut material) etc. Then either tweak things some more or polish the whole convex bevel.

If the edge has a tendency to roll then just steepen the angle of the final edge a tiny bit & test again till you find the right balance.

I tend to look at many of these kind of mass produced blades as potentially great knives. By this I mean there is a good machete lurking within the rather roughly produced factory product. With a bit of elbow grease they can be perfectly tuned to your particular needs.

Happy grinding...

 

[Minimears]

Cheers for the info guys, I've finally got it how I want it and am finding it a very useful tool indeed. I have made a few modifications to it, namely a scandi grind close to the hilt/handle and filed off the top to give me a draw blade. Overall I'm very impressed with it considering how bad it was to start with.

 

[JonathanD]

We need some piccies now.

 

[Pict]

That sounds like what I do to my machete blades. I've always wanted to try them on a Martindale Golok. It will probably be a very useful too for you. Mac

 

[seved]

That sounds like what I do to my machete blades. I've always wanted to try them on a Martindale Golok. It will probably be a very useful too for you. Mac

Looks like a nice machete

Seved