Machete 101

I was raised by an axeman.  Dad always used a double-bit felling axe for anything that might be considered a reasonable application.  We also had a steel-handled scythe which we called our brush-hook.  The old-timers who had cradled wheat and oats from sunup to sundown could probably shave a feller with their "sickle" and never nick him.  Machetes, though, were not common in the hardwood.  We did have the rusted remnants of a corn knife which I confiscated as a sword when I was a child.  For work, I used a double-bit axe, a down-sized True Temper that I got for my birthday -- the picture looks like I was about eight.  I cut sprouts, cleared brush, and delimbed the logs we cut for firewood.  In winter, I took an axe with a well-worn and battered head to open holes in the ice for our stock cows.  All that, and I am still have to shorten my stroke when I chop left-handed.

I always figured an machete was too light and too short to be of much use around here, though I am fascinated by big blades.  As I noted before, I decided to get the Cold Steel Magnum Kukri Machete to pack along for heavier stuff when I as running my string trimmer.  Since that time, I have come to conclude that it's actually a pretty good tool back in the brush.  I pack it a lot, despite the length being occasionally awkward while on the tractor. 

Always being one to want to learn something new, I recently ran across these youtube videos of a gentleman down in Ecuador, Don Fernando Caamano, who has considerably more than a passing acquaintance with the machete:    


Making a reaping hook for brush cutting.


Using a reaping hook in clearing brush.

Don Caamano looks like he knows what he is doing. 

A reaping hook used in conjunction with a machete allows the wielder to avoid getting too much that will bleed in the way of that big swinging blade.  The hook is used to get the brush or weeds into a better position for the blade to cut safely and efficiently. 

I cut the one pictured above with my chainsaw from some variation of black oak.  It's pretty tough, and maybe a little heavier and more substantial that Don Caamano's hook.  The thing I like about it is that it is a solid stop for the blade.  In other words I can put the knob end of the hook behind something light but tough like buckbrush and chop into it so the material is effectively sheared off.  It's kind of like anvil pruning shears.  A straight stick would work as well part of the time, but the hook is handy for pulling brush out and holding clumps together.  The hook takes a lot of abuse, but it saves the blade, and the raw material for a new one is amazingly cheap around my place. 

I was working on a very steep hillside yesterday, clearing for some new fencing.  I wound up using the hook to grab a sapling and hold myself in place a time or two and as a staff for stability.  Sticks:  the original cutting edge technology. 

Anyway, for machete work, I would say that the reaping hook has proven its worth in terms of convenience, safety, and efficacy.