The best machete for bushwacking?

What is the best machete for bushwacking? I am getting into off beaten path routes this year. Noticed how much effort it takes to bushwacking. Advice?

Where do you live? Most places a machete is useless. It's all about pruning shears and a small, foldable hand saw.

Here's the one I usually use

The Mysterious Trail Trimmer of Shelf Road swears by a small trimmer over a machete. The issue being than in desert-like climes with cactus, the machete tends to make spiney chuncks fly back at the whacker. No bueno, gringo.

But a machete might make a good implement to cut your own hand off to prevent further trolling, Hellanor. Now you can't fall on your sword with one. For that you need a real sword.

None, unless you are in the heavy jungle maybe. Just learning how to move without getting caught up and pushing through uses less energy than whacking about. In heavy stuff I kind of walk kung fu style, with knees turned in and bent and a little pigeon toed, wrists crossed in front of the face. I do a lot of schwacking about and can move quickly this way. The main goal is protecting your eyes. Just use a stick when you have to push prickers out of the way and wear gloves.
If you are trying to make a trail, a machete leaves a mess and a bunch of punji sticks. A light pair of clippers and small saw are much better for cutting right at ground level and pruning branches cleanly against the trunk.

I think these are the best clippers amazon.com/Fiskars-PowerGea… They are really light, can fit discretely in a pack with a little cardboard around the blade and cut really well. They hold up pretty well as long as you don't try to cut something huge or twist them while cutting, and they are cheap to replace when you do finally break the lower jaw off.

Stich wrote: But a machete might make a good implement to cut your own hand off to prevent further trolling, Hellanor.

Really? Can admins not... admin? Oh, I see, they entertain the question as if it had merit. No wonder she comes back ceaselessly.

The question has some merit. I have seen plenty of morons slashing about or carrying a machete, not usually climbers though, thankfully. Don't fixate on who wrote the post. That is what produces most of the stream of effluvia back and forth. Think something is silly, ignore it. These infantile feuds are a real turn-off to a lot of people.

Colonel Mustard wrote: Really? Can admins not... admin? Oh, I see, they entertain the question as if it had merit. No wonder she comes back ceaselessly.

Please ban hellenor

I hear they could use some nurses in Syria.

Jake Jones wrote: Bingo! These "infantile feuds" are caused by nonsensical bullshit and retarded hyperbolic stupidity driven by the compulsive need for attention. You know what turns people off? Turning an otherwise good discussion into a shitshow because you have exactly two brain cells deadlocked in a fight to the death.

I fully agree, but it is certainly not only one person doing that. Most of it is cloaked as responding to another's BS. Just stopping is the cure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0lr63y4Mw

I just bought a Gerber Machete for blazing a trail to a new area this past week. It has a long blade and a nice saw blade on the back of the blade. The best part is that it was only $19 so I didnt mind when i missed and hit a few rocks.

I'm a land surveyor by day, so I spend a lot of time swinging a machete around. The best reasonably priced machete I've used is an Ontario Knife military grade machete such as this one: click

The handles aren't the best but the steel is way better than other brands. I prefer a 22 inch over the traditional 18 inch. Nothing you find at a hardware store will work very well and ALL machetes need sharpening right of the shelf, and regularly.

This being said, if you don't know what you're doing with a machete I strongly recommend using pruners or saws. Machetes have a bit of a learning curve and can be pretty dangerous if used improperly. Also, if you're using it for any kind of trail building or pruning around route - DON'T. They brutalize whatever you're trying to cut and doesn't easily leave a nice clean, flat cut like pruners and saws do.

Back up a minute. Before you use a machete, pruning shears, saw, or anything else to create a trail to a climb, check with the land owner. Creating social trails in many places is illegal and punishable with hefty fines, or at the very least is poor form. This type of activity is the reason that some climbing areas have been closed to the public. So, if it is private land: check with the land owner; and if it is public land (Park Service, Forest Service, State Parks, etc.): read the regulations carefully and don't do anything that would cause the rest of us to lose access to climbing areas because of your actions.

Did Hellanor make another account to apologize to her other account about people calling her out?

I'm with Stich on this one. She brings the quality of this site down single handedly. How does a person get repeatly banned from a community and be allowed to keep coming back?

Jeremy Riesberg wrote:Did Hellanor make another account to apologize to her other account about people calling her out? I'm with Stich on this one. She brings the quality of this site down single handedly. How does a person get repeatly banned from a community and be allowed to keep coming back?

Hey Jeremy,

I'm just guessing, but I'm pretty sure the guys running MP haven't utilized strict IP banning methods, or if so, they aren't blocking proxy users/etc. Other forums are much harder to keep making accounts on.

Supertopo is one of them. IP bans...SOmething that keeps you from posting from an account created with a proxy... etc etc. It exists, it just depends on how involved the mods want to get / amount of funds they have for such things / etc. I'm not an IT expert by any stretch, perhaps one can chime in.

When I lived in Mexico, a lot of guys carried these - great at dealing with the local flora, called a Coa, I think?

Machetes are only good for opening cocos and making you feel better about your small cock.