Martindale Machetes

Ralph Martindale & Company Ltd of England produces an incredible variety of edge tools for sale all over the world. Many of their machetes are produced in their factory in Ghana, West Africa. Once produced, they are sold all over the African continent. Martindale also makes other styles popular in Asia and the Americas. Well-known for consistent quality and attention to detail, Martindale supplies machetes and survival tools to the British Armed Services.
MacheteSpecialists.com now offers the largest selection of Martindale machetes in North America.

Palm Tree Trimming Tool

Most people knowledgeable about pruning palm trees know that some type of blade is required. Though old, dry fronds do not harm the tree, they can become unsightly if left for too long. A dense, shaggy mass often remains where the dry fronds broke from the tree, which can build up and become a fire hazard and a favorite nesting spot for rodents. With as many different palms as there are, it would be hard to recommend a specific machete for this task, but we can give some suggestions.

Palm trees are very sensitive to damage to their trunks, so utmost care must be taken when removing spent fronds. Generally speaking, pruners can better control their blades if they choose a machete with either a straight or concave cutting edge. Both provide more control compared to a machete with a convex, slicing blade. Sickle like blades have the further advantage of gathering the fronds together right before cutting them.

Since palm fronds are usually not woody, a lightweight machete is preferred to avoid fatigue. Avoid heavy blades.

Machetes with a hook have the advantage of allowing the uses to pull down vegetation to within reach.

If you are needing a palm tree pruning tool, look no further than MacheteSpecialists.com.

Old Edge Tools-Machetes and Billhooks

There are several sites in the UK that specialize in old-time edge tools, many of which are no longer manufactured.

Some great places to look:

timelesstools.co.uk
oldtools.co.uk

Agriculture in the UK has a long history, and for hundreds of years people used hand tools to harvest fuel and food. With the recent mechanization of agriculture, many of these implements were discarded and replaced by newer machines. In the UK however, land parcels still tend to be small, and the growing movement towards sustainable, small-scale agriculture has once again created interest in billhooks, machetes, and other edge-tools.

Machetes for Surveyors

Here at MacheteSpecialists.com, we get a lot of responses from surveyors looking to find a machete. They need a good machete to clear sight lines when making boundary surveys. Most are looking for a medium-long, hefty machete that does not bend or wobble.

Bill Hooks: the European Machete

Condor Bush Knife $59.99

The billhook is any many ways the machete of Europe. Featuring a curved blade that concentrates vegetation in the center of the curve for controlled cutting, they are great for stripping side branches or cutting around curved objects like tree trunks.

Billhooks were useful for woodlot management, particularly important in an earlier time when wood was the fuel for virtually every household.

Gerber Gator Recall

New Model

Recalled Model

Gerber Legendary Blades Recalls Machetes Due to Laceration Hazard

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Gerber® Gator® Machete and Gator® Machete Jr.

Units: About 149,000 Gator Machetes and 6,000 Gator Machetes Jr.

Importer: Gerber Legendary Blades, of Portland, Ore., a division of Fiskars Brands Inc., of Madison, Wis.

Gerber Blade Company has added a finger guard on their Gator® and Gator® Jr machetes.

All the new Gerber Gator machetes sold by MacheteSpecialists.com feature the new handle, which prevents the hand slipping onto the serrated blade while sawing.

Consumer Contact: For more information, contact Gerber Legendary Blades toll-free at (877) 314-9130 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT, Monday through Friday, or visit the firm's Web site at www.gerbergear.com (pdf)

Imacasa Machetes

MacheteSpecialists.com is the only website in the US currently selling machetes from Central American giant Imacasa. Based in El Salvador, Imacasa sells a wide range of tools throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. They are knows as some of the best machetes produced.

Book of Eli-Fury Machete Only $8.50

In the movie "The Book of Eli", the machete they feature has several holes in the blade. These holes are designed to lighten the blade of the machete. We have several machetes that feature a lightened blade. This Fury machete features a kukri style blade and a black finish.

Machetes for the Survivalist

I tend to believe there is no tool more essential than the machete. In fact, one of the first items that primitive tribes added to their toolkit was the metal machete. Arab traders brought machetes to Southeast Asia, and Europeans brought them to South and Central America. So important were machetes that missionaries in the 1970s, when trying to contact jungle tribes in Ecuador, would drop machetes from helicopters as gifts to attempt to make contact, and ironically, civilize them.

Condor Golok Machete

The Condor golok machete is a really cool tool, and our bestseller.

Golok is the Indonesian term for machete, so it is really a tautology to say golok machete. Since golok is an all-encompassing term, any style of blade that originated in Indonesia tends to be called a golok.

That said, machetes with thick, stout blades tend to be popular in Asia, and are a common feature of many "golok" machetes.

The Condor golok machete is hand-crafted in El Salvador, but based on a SE Asian design.

Sickles are Modified Machetes

A machete, in our humble estimation, is similar to a large knife except that you tend to swing it as opposed to stab with it. In other words, a machete is a long blade on a handle that you swing. A sickle, therefore, is just a highly modified machete for harvesting grains and stalks.

Machetes at the Fair

At one time, machete-like tools were ubiquitous in farms all across America. Known as "corn knives" or "sickles", they are similar to machetes in that that are swung to chop and slice. As the name implies, the corn knife is used for chopping corn stalks. As mechanization supplanted these humble hand tools, corn knives and sickles became rare. The Latin American sugar cane machete, still common in sugar-growing regions everywhere, is similar in structure to the corn knife, and can be used as one. Both feature a wide, thin blade with a blunt tip. The wide blade provides enough weight for chopping, and the tip is removed to prevent it from interfering with the chopping motion of the blade. The hook is used to help gather the chopped stalks or canes.