Cold Steel Machete   

I added a Cold Steel Machete to my ever increasing stockpile of gear about a month ago.  I didnt have a chance to go bushwacking with it until just the other day.  I paid about 19.00 dollars US to have it shipped to my door, that was without the sheath.  If you want a sheath, you will have to fork out another eight bucks. 

With that said, here is what I like about the cold steel machete (bolo model):

1.  The Price.   Even with shipping, and even if you spring for the sheath..its fairly inexpensive for what you get.  For around $20 U.S. dollars, you wont find too many tools that will do all the tasks a machete will do, from chopping, to digging, to butchering.  A machete is also a very formidable weapon.   
2.  The baked on anti rust finish.   Pretty key for a medium carbon blade like this one.(1055)
3.  The handle material is pretty much indestructible polypropylene.  

I'm afraid thats about as long as the "stuff I liked" list gets... which sucks, because I just knew I was going to love this machete... but I really dont  So here's why:

1.  The sheath.   As I already mentioned, it is sold many places without a sheath, so you have to fork out another $8-10 bucks or so unless you want to carry it around in the lovely cardboard sleeve it comes in.  I guess if there is one good thing to say about that, it's that you can order it, and see if you like it, before buying the sheath.  That way when you discover you wont be using it as your primary machete, you're not out the extra ten bucks.  It can reside in a toolbox drawer in the cardboard sleeve, no problem.  So perhaps this is a pro and not a con after all !

2.  The handle.  While indestructible as it may be, it is not all that comfortable.  it feels just a little too tall and not quite wide enough.  There are no two hands the same, and its really not fair for me to say the cold steel machete does not fit my hand, when in actual fact, my hand just doesnt fit the machete.  But that's my observation so there you have it.  The polypropylene material is tough, but its also a little slick feeling.  I generally wear gloves when slinging a machete so that helps.  If you have sweat or blood or rain on your hands, a machete can be a challenge to hang on to.  A good secure grip is pretty important when you are swinging a big sharp blade around.

3.  The Blade.    After about 10 minutes of clearing some brush on my property with this cold steel machete, including some small trees with 1 to 2 inch diameter trunks, I bent the blade.  I was able to bend it back in my vise, but I was a little surprised with the speed and ease with which I bent it. 

Upon closer inspection of the blade, I noticed that I had also rolled the edge pretty badly in several places.  The steel on this blade seems to be fairly soft.   I believe the factory edge may have contributed to the rolling of the edge, which brings me to my next issue... the "Utility edge" on the blade as delivered is pretty awful.  It looks like it was sharpened with the roughest rock they could find.   after I bent and rolled the blade, I spent about 15 minutes and put a nice sharp edge on it.  which seems to have helped somewhat

While there is no question that the cold steel machete is a definite upgrade from your average el-cheapo machete, but all in all, i was pretty underwhelmed with it.  I'll take my marbles jungle bolo machete over this thing any day.  It comes with a nice, quality sheath w/ sharpening stone, a convex razor sharp edge, and a blade that I cant bend.  Not to mention it just flat out works better. AND it was cheaper ! 

top to bottom: Marbles Jungle Bolo machete, Gerber Gator machete, Cold Steel machete

Just so I dont end on a negative note, this cold steel machete will still kick the crap out of the gerber gator machete all day long...(more on that later.)  and if I wanted to pursue it, Cold Steel would probably replace it for me, or refund my money, they place a high emphasis on customer satisfaction and quality.  In this case I think maybe I just had heightened expectations after watching the videos on their website, and expected too much from a < $20 dollar tool.

blade thickness of Cold Steel Bolo machete (top) vs. Marbles Bolo Machete (bottom)

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