A shot of the heavy duty machete pattern from the Barteaux Machete website :
The review consists of :
These machetes were donated for reviews by Marion David Poff. They are made from 0.1" stock, described by Barteaux as a high carbon tempered spring steel. The twelve inch one is 480 g and the eighteen inch 620 g. These are the heavy duty models with the protective D-guard grips. The machetes are flat stock, no primary grind. The edge is ground at roughly fifteen degree per side and the blade is the American Tanto profile popularized by Cold Steel. The handles are plastic, rounded, and decently ergonomic with a palm swell though the the side is abrasive.
The initial edges on both machetes were poor and both needed to be sharpened before any work was performed. With the origional profile sharpened to a fine finish the twelve inch Barteaux compared well against thst Camp and Trail machete from Ontario on light brush. On strawberry bushes the D-guard on the Barteaux was of significant value protecting the hand from the thorns. In general the grips on the Barteaux machete was found to be much more secure grip of the Ontario machete which is smooth and can get slippery in use. There was no significant difference noted in general cutting ability as the blades are of similar length and heft.
The eighteen inch Barteaux is much more efficient for this type of work due to reach able to cut much more vegetation on each pass. It is many times to one more productive than attemping such work with shorter knives such as the Ratweiler. In general the heavy duty Barteaux models are over built for grasses and other light brush. They cut it well enough when properly sharpened but lighter machetes have much lower fatigue is use. The light Tramontina machete and and #32L and #23W Martindale machetes were much mroe productive for this type of work in general. Barteaux also makes a lighter machete for this type of work.
On the smaller woods, fifteen or so feet in length with limbs up to half an inch in diameter, the twelve inch Barteaux machete had enough chopping ability to clear the branches in single and fluid cuts and in general was less fatiguing than the larger machete. The smaller machete could cut thicker and harder woods in a single chop and as well had much more reach so was more efficient per swing than smaller knives such as the Project I from Chris Reeves. A Busse Combat Battle Mistress, a heavier blade made from 0.275" thick stock with a full flat ground which tapers to a thin edge did generally outperform the twelve inch machete. The machete had a slight reach advantage of a couple of inches, but in general this didn't compensate for the higher cutting ability of the Battle Mistress which also had much better edge retention.
On larger woods, fifteen to thirty foot long sticks with limbs up to two inches thick, and especially in black spruce which is a denser and harder wood, the eighteen machete was much more productive than the twelve inch model and any of the shorter blades it was compared to including the Battle Mistress. Not only did the larger machete have more power on the swing by having a longer and heavier blade which allowed it to cut even the larger branches with just a couple of chops, the greater reach also allowed more proficient limbing as much more cutting could be performed with minimal bending. The machete was also found in general to outperform a a 20" Sirupati khukuri, able to clear the thicker branches in less swings.
The barteaux machetes were also used to clear a lot of dead wood, dried and seasoned branches, including full power swings with each blade. There were no problems ith brittle fracture as was seen on other large blades even on the hardest of the limbs which often cracked under the impact of the blade. There were also no issues with deformation or rippling as was se