Almost a Woodsman's Pal

[willysjeep134]

Hello,


I am all for buying American products, but being a college student that isn't always in the cards. When I can, I do, but sometimes I make exceptions for products that aren't made in america any more.

One product that caught my eye a few years ago was the Woodsman's Pal Machete. The woodsmans pal is a bush cutting machete made in the USA. It has a unique shape and is supposed to be the best made for cutting woody materials. Now a woodsman's pal will run you about $45. I don't have that kind of money to spend when I don't cut that much brush. What I do have is $5 for a Tramontina sugar cane knife. This is a south american machete made for harvesting sugar cane. The shape of the two is vaguely similar, which means that they should be somewhat similar in use. They both have wide square points and taper back towards the handle. This makes them excelent choppers, like small hatchets. I am thinking about making an order from Smoky Mountain pretty soon and I might get one of these machetes while I am at it.  I don't cut much brush, but I plan on trimming some limbs through balsam thickets to make some hunting trails on my property this fall.

As an aside, nobody but Ontario makes machetes in the USA any more, and nobody makes them with the wooden handles I prefer, so I don't feel as bad about going to a south american company. I just wish Ontario would make one or two with wooden scale handles again.

[Joel]

The Woodsman's Pal is made here in PA,and while I've never used one,although I've enough brush and woods around to justify one, our local telephone people and PENNDOT people use them and swear by them.  I bought a Tramontina(largest cutlery maker in Brazil) machete a few years ago for five bucks at one of our local suplus stores, and while I liked it because it was made of thinner steel than my old Camillus, and cut really well, the wooden handle split and fell off after some really hard chopping.  Really no problem to put another one on, I just haven't got around to it, and for the cost of one, might just use the steel to make something else in the way of a knife....cheaper to buy a new one.  Cold Steel still offers machetes, whether they make them or not I don't know.  The current Smokey Mountain Catalog has them for $8.99...two of which resemble what you are talking about; one in heavy configuration, and one light.

[koli]

I bought a Woodsmans Pal last year.  Love the thing.  Fine craftsmanship and balance.  Keeps a nice sharp edge.  I bought a factory second that they offer from time to time and saved a few $.  Looked it over real well and could not find any reason why it was  a second.