...After all, I wouldn't want it to come apart & slash my chest open!!!!!!
You been talking to JD?
You haven't said what you'll be wanting to use it for. I have several machetes and parangs, you'd be welcome to try out a couple if we ever get that Oxfordshire meet organized [edit- forget I said that, it was Tank not Trunks].
Failing that, maybe we could do another passaround.
My take on it is that there are two main uses for this kind of blade. Slashing thin vegetation to clear spaces or make a path through it, and cutting bigger things like tree limbs for shelter building, firewood (including splitting smaller logs), and larger clearing operations. I use a light Tramontina machete for most brush clearing type jobs, cheap as chips and perfectly adequate. I have heavier parangs and similar for heavier work. JonathanD did a review a while back (search for "Borneo Parang" or something). It was one of those that, er, cut short his recent Venezuela trip. The ones reviewed by JD are also cheap but as they were brought back from Borneo by Woody, not as cheap as they could have been.
There's also the issue of bending low. If you don't want to spend a lot of time crouching to reach whatever you're cutting then a much longer blade is desirable. A bit of a pain to carry if you're not using it, however.
