This machete was a joint effort between my 15 yr old student Chris and myself. His grandfather has been bringing him to class for about 3 years now. So Chris wanted to make him a blade for the farm work, as a thank you. Grandfather told us what tasks he wanted it to perform, we did the rest, some gift huh?

15.5 inch 5160H blade, 1/4 thick, 2 1/8 wide, 21 inches over all, and tempered at 450F. POB is 2 inches in front of stabilized and figured maple handle, with 4 brass pins. you can see it is full tang to take abuse with an Oil finish. Works well on up to almost 3 inch green maple and pine branches with single chop, needed 6 chops for an old 4x4 fence post.

I added an edge to the tip curve also for getting to roots, as this will be carried in the tractor, he has a little land to clear of sucker trees.

Edited May 13, 200917 yr by steve sells
addition

That's too pretty to go choppin'
Looks like an heirloom to me.

How is 5160H different from 5160?
Mark

looks like a good hacker... almost a sword! good stuff

All steel mill melt spec's have a variance for the alloys content. the 5160H is a tighter allowance in how much of what they have added. So rather than a carbon variance range of 0.56 to .064 in the specs as with a standard 5160, this is closer to 0.58 - 0.62 carbon allowed, etc...

so I assume H is short for Higher tolerances?

Edited May 13, 200917 yr by steve sells
typo

Very Nice Job. I think that anyone would be pround to own that Machete. One luck Grandfather.

That sure is sweet looking. Let's just hope that he never misses what he is chopping and hits something vital.:o

First class job. Heck of a gift.

Sweet looking chopper well done guys.

Bob

Excellent stuff. I grew up on farm in Texas, and carried a machete on the tractor, too.
They are great tools, and that is a really solid one.
good gesture, great machete.

Kevin

what a beautiful machete!

Hi Steve,
That`s a handsome machete. Is that rainbow reflection due to the oil you applied or is it the result of heat treating and so on? We use a lot of those here in the tropics, of course they ain`t that nice... Nelson

Steve-
That is a beuty!
All the trees saved by your posts will be offset by that machete,l keep up the good work... posting!

Hi Steve,
That`s a handsome machete. Is that rainbow reflection due to the oil you applied or is it the result of heat treating and so on? We use a lot of those here in the tropics, of course they ain`t that nice... Nelson

I may be a little of the oil, but it is mainly from flame treating of the wood while hand sanding with 600 grit :)

one word...wow