​Hidey Hole Machete

[Guest]

While I may be susceptible to criticism or ridicule on many fronts, now having seen the sclerotically scabrous, lepidote and furfuraceous remains of two axe heads, two Cara Cara knives, a machete and a hammer in Maryland, I don't want to hear a peep from the Old Line State about my maintenance practices for my modest collection of tools. Not a peep, thank you.

Just for you Glenn, another resurrection. An old rusty machete, complete with a dirt and mud dauber encrusted leather scabbard and a cracked and duct taped handle.



I cleaned up the scabbard, although it took some 0000 steel wool to remove the years of crud and multiple coats of Neats Foot oil to bring back the leather. Which is in surprisingly good shape. That is one helluva well made scabbard; thick full leather, well stitched with oddly starred grommets at the stress points.

I got the duct tape goo off the handle and repaired it with G/flex, and polished and sharpened the blade.



Not too shabby. The cleaned up blade revealed a logo of a crown with arm and axe rampant, stamped LEGITIMUS COLLINS, followed by, um, something gabled & worn off and “Columbia”.

A little Googling brought up some interesting hits. Collins machetes seem to hold a good rep, and given the apparent age, construction and condition this one may be WWII or a post war civilian aftermarket.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/842114-Legitimus-amp-Collins-Machete

What the heck, in for a penny. I wet sanded the blade with 600 and 1500 and put an edge on it with the Lansky stone.



Now I has a machete. It’s a big one, 22 inch blade, 27 ½ overall. I’m ready, come zombie apocalypse, harvesting sugar cane or joining the WWII era Signal Corp.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

That's a nice machete and an equally nice refurbish job. Collins made machetes for both World Wars. There are many in the Collins museum here in Connecticut.

That should be a very good grass and light brush machete. I can't tell the thickness, but if it's robust enough in that dimension, it could also be a good wood chopping machete. I feel much more confident limbing small branches off a tree with a machete than an axe, because I can safely use much higher velocity swings and it's hard to miss the branch with 20" of blade.

Put a lanyard on it. The guy in the following video is long winded (start at 3:00), but he shows five ways use the lanyard. The first way--just slipping it over your wrist--is the wrong and unsafe way. If you lose your grip on a down swing, the machete will pendulum on the lanyard perhaps into your leg. He then shows four other lanyard grips: the thumb lock (which I use for almost every situation), the over lock, the under lock, and the three-finger whip.