97KMS Kukri Machete,Black

Can do must of the chopping work of a small-medium ax and all the duties of a machete. Very well made very well put together. Size is about perfect in it will pack well but still big enough to handle any chopping task shy of cutting down a larger diameter tree. Will chop kindling and firewood well especially if you use a small log as a mallet to assist in spitting wood. I feel a must have camping and survival tool. Sheath is also well made and not all cheaply done. Well worth the price you really get your moneys worth from this chopping tool. Like to add when I bought this Cold Steel Royal Kukri machete I also bought a Accusharp carbide blade knife sharpener. The Cold steel Kukri came only OK sharp. Yes it would cut you, but I felt it to dull for my liking. So I did 50 passes with the Accusharp, tested the blade for improvement and repeated, 50 test, 50 test etc. After 250 passes the Cold Steel Kukri was very sharp and no doubt I could get it even sharper as it's sharpness improved noticeably with every 50 passes of the sharpener, but I got it sharp enough to cut anything I will need to with minimal effort. All in all I can highly recommend both the Cold Steel Kukri Machete and the Accusharp knife sharpener.

From the male of the family. I wanted a couple of fighting swords for home defense, and this Cold Steel cutlass is certainly one of my picks. We have a large property, with lots of wildlife on it as well, including javelina (in the pig family), bobcats, coyotes, and more, so it's nice to have a hefty longknife at my side while working out there. Of course, call it a machete and you can get it for a far better price than most "swords," so that's fine with me. I was watching a video on knife fighting, and one of the instructors said, "if you get in a knife fight, don't ever think you're going to use your arm or body to block a blade. Your best defense is always, don't get cut. To that end, go for your attacker's knife hand." Then I remembered reading stories about battles from medieval times when women would go around after the fighting, and fill entire baskets with fingers. You know what I'm leading up to: if you're going to ever use a sword or longknife in self defense, you want to be sure and protect your hand. Most machetes and even a lot of swords don't do this for you. This cutlass does! That tough polypropylene handle will stop a blade -- or thorny branches, for that matter, if you're using it as a machete. We need the hand protection! As for the blade, it is 2 feet of high carbon steel. That means, it will take an edge. Mine came reasonably sharp, but not enough (and I do understand that it's a safety feature, not to ship a blade with it's keenest edge. The makers don't want your first experience to be slicing yourself!). A few minutes with a file, then stone, and I had a wicked edge. The handle is 6 inches long, and fits my hand very well. I like that the blade has a baked on anti-rust finish, and that the cutlass came with a canvas sheath. This is a great price for what you get! Recommended.

Another quality purchase! I admit to having an addiction to machetes and Kukris'. I like Big Knives and I cannot lie . This 25" blade came out of the box SHARP. It did have a little excess oil on the blade, but that just shows that Cold Steel cares about sending their blades protected from rust. Great quality control! Now then, after a run over a strop, it seemed adequately honed and ready for action. At the log pile, it delivered several hard chops and threw chunks impressively. I was a bit concerned over the blade seeming thin at 2.8 mm, but it cut well, and stayed fairly sharp. No vibration was evident. It is LARGE, and won't be riding my hip any time soon, but it is meant for the canoe anyway. I can tell that it WILL be a workout in an extended session, but that's okay. The sheath is very simple and doesn't have molle capability but I can work around that. The price at $35.00 is a steal. I would recommend this beast for anyone that wants a big knife!

I was disappointed when I opened the package and pulled the blade out of the sheath. It looked terrible. The machined edge on this blade was nasty. It looked like something with fangs had bitten the edge of the blade to pull the steel off to create a semi-edge. In fact, it looked somewhat like the edge of an arrowhead chipped away to be sharpened (but with nasty gooves and burrs). Cut marks in the steel... Awful. I pulled out my sharpener and spent every sitting minute for a week -- literally several hours -- running the blade over the sharpener, peeling back the burrs the grooves, the cuts and the marks. I could have done it using a grinder, but the blade had too much grind and not enough love and it needed to be fixed. While this is a working machete, not a showpiece, I found myself unable to resist working the edge to razor sharpness. I mean hair-shaving, paper slicing, bloody thumb sharp. It was overkill, but it did a lot to make it look and perform better. Being high carbon steel, it also took and held that edge well. I didn't get all the marks, grinds, grooves and machine cuts out of the edge near the cutting blade, but I improved it a lot. It looked a lot better, was a lot sharper and, most importantly, working it in the field proved it could withstand tremendous abuse. I've had it for a year or more now and I've used to baton wood, to cut back brush, to chop limbs for firewood off deadfalls and I've even used its flat blade to scoop up fire coals for cooking. It still has marks where the machining abused the steel. It's also still a little thinner than I'd like. But it is a beast. We took a SOG Fasthawk, a Bear Grylls Gerber Machete (parang) and this Cold Steel Magnum Kukri and the bites into a wooden log were very similar. As a friend and I worked side by side on a red cedar deadfall, collecting wood, his Bear Grylls Gerber Machete broke at the handle (a failing like others that has led to a recall of that blade). The Cold Steel Kukri keeps on kicking. I think it's inexcusable for the blade to have come in the condition it did and if others rate it a 2 overall, I can certainly understand why. Out of the box, this thing was horrific and Cold Steel makes too many great products not to know better. In fact, they should have put another brand name on this blade, because some folks will see this and will think it represents the company's work. That would be a shame to confuse this South African (where it's made) machined abuse with typical Cold Steel quality. Anyway, once sharpened correctly, it maintains an edge, it has good weight and power and it's the kind of blade you can use again and again and not sweat hurting the steel. I like it and enjoy having it ride with me in my expedition kayak for utility use, firewood chopping, path clearing and more. Seeing its utility over time has given me a new respect for it that was lacking when it arrived on my doorstep. ** EDIT - I purchased another one for a friend as a gift and was going to go ahead and clean up the edge... It came in MUCH better shape than my first one did. While it was obvious that a machine grind had been used and the edge was semi-dull, it was far superior to the burred up mess I got the first time around. Quality control appears to have improved. (11/15/2013).

This is a terrific blade! I bought it in remembrance of my Filipino Mother and my Grandfather who was a Filipino Guerrilla during WW2. the Weight and feel are perfect. Thank you so much Amazon and Cold Steel!

I bought the machete to clear four to five foot high weeds on a hill. I also bought the blade cover for it. When I first removed the machete from the package I was surprised that it was slightly heavier than I thought it would be. It weights about 2 lbs is my guess. The blade isn't super sharp out of the package. It's set with a bevel edge that is a compromise between knocking down weeds and briar and perhaps hacking away at small saplings as well. When I first took it out, I was more "chopping" than "swinging". The best approach for me was to swing the machete in one direction (holding with two hands), then flipping my wrists so that it would than chop in the opposite direction, back and forth, back and forth. At first I was trying to cut down large swaths, but it works best if you cut in a few inches at a time for a few swings, then move forward. Once I got the "speed" of the machete head going with really wide swings, I was able to clear about 800 square feet in one half an hour, which is pretty good going! Unfortunately, machete-ing for 1/2 hour left me somewhat exhausted later in the day! Maybe try going for 15 minutes the first day and see how sore you are after. It's a lot of fun so the tendency is to do too much. Best to wear some gloves or you'll get wicked blisters. Also long pants because the briars will cut up your legs if you wear shorts. Some bug spray might be handy. Try doing this on a cool day, because you can get really, really hot doing this sort of work. I tried sharpening the machete using my arkansas stone, which worked really well. I just held the machete in my left hand (I'm right handed) and rested the machete on a surface with the blade pointing up. I took the arkansas stone in my right hand, and moved it down the length of the blade, stroking towards the spine (the back part which is dull). When you get the right angle, you feel like your polishing the blade and you'll hear a metallic "zing" as you move down the blade. I then tilted the blade and used the stone in my right hand to work on the left hand side of the blade. I did five strokes on each side, then four, then three, then two, then one, to minimize the burr. When I was done the machete was so sharp you could almost shave with it! When I tried the machete after sharpening, it did knock down the weeds much easier, but it was a little tougher to get down small half inch think saplings. The finer the sharpen, the better for thinner stuff. Keep a nice steep bevel on it if all you are doing is thick stuff (not weeds). I found the sharper (more steep angle) I put on the blade, the quicker it dulled. The factor sharpen is probably about a 25 degree angle blade, which probably keeps sharp for hours. I put on about a 15 degree really sharp angle, and it cut weeds like crazy but was basically dull after 1/2 hour of cutting. I prefer super sharp, so I'm a-okay with sharpening before each use. You could probably also sharpen with a file, although I haven't tried that yet. All in all, it's slightly on the heavy side. The blade does flex a little bit, probably keeps it from breaking. You can sharpen this blade to the profile you want for the type of bush or weeds you're trying to clear. It certainly does the job, but be careful not to overdo it because you're tendency is to not want to stop once you get started, and if you do overdo it you will be a hurting unit that evening, and probably wake up stiff the next morning!

It is sometimes good to disregard the brand of a product when reviewing to ensure maximum objectivity. Were it not for the Cold Steel brand, I doubt so many people would defend negative reviews of this machete so feverishly. There is definitely a cult-like following among some people of Cold Steel. Ok, on to the machete which I received. First problem and probably the worst nightmare of blade enthusiasts is having a blade that is not true. From the handle to the tip of the blade, there was about a 5 degree offset or bent on my machete. Very obvious visually as soon as I picked up the machete. A slight effort on my part and I was able to bend it back fairly close to true but not entirely. This steel's temper is nothing to boast about. It is definitely easily bent and malleable. This damage or defect could have occurred either in the factory or afterwards somewhere during the handling process. Definitely a letdown in terms of quality. Now the most common complaint of this machete is the condition of the edge it comes in. Mine was no exception. It is a very rough edge and had sections where the steel was rolled over. This is surely a sign of poor workmanship at the factory. This was no surprise to me as I had half expected it and I plan to spend some time putting on a decent edge. However, the machetes I have seen for sale at retail stores all have much more decently finished edges than this one. Why is this Cold Steel brand product allowed such leeway? The black finish on the blade is good and similar to that of many other machetes. I particularly like the profile of this kukri blade. It has just the right amount of curve to it for me and not too much like some other kukri profiles. This was the main reason I chose this machete. I wanted a decent and cheap Kukri style chopper. The handle is pretty nice and is one of the strong points of this machete. It is not a completely hard plastic but rather has a slight cushioning property to it. This helps in absorbing shock. The handle material here is listed as polypropylene but so is the handle on the Cold Steel Katana Machete, which I also own. But that one is a hard rigid type plastic and feels different. Lot's of people have disliked the sheath. I actually find it to be slightly above average compared to the sheaths similar machetes come with in retail stores. It is designed very practically and the small plastic reinforcement panels at the tip is nice. The belt loop stitching is sturdy and done well with a X pattern reinforcement. Overall the Kurki machete concept is the best feature of this machete considering the price. The quality of the machete itself is only average and a bit under what I expected of Cold Steel. I am giving this 3 stars.

I've had this machete now for a little over a month. In that time, I've used it to clear bamboo and privet on my property. I need to clear about an acre over the winter, and I need to have the stumps cut as close to the ground as possible, as I intend to mow these areas in the summer months. I needed a machete on a stick, and that is exactly what I got in this product. With the abuse that I've given it, a lesser quality product would have broken after my first day of heavy use. Since I'm cutting the stumps off as low as possible, the last two inches of blade enter the ground every swing. That end of the blade is notched a bit now, which is to be expected considering the rocks, bricks, old fence wire, etc. that it impacts. No steel will stand up to that sort of abuse and stay sharp, so I'm unconcerned with the notches and dings. The deep belly of the blade is where the actual cutting happens, and I'm very happy with the edge retention. None of the wood or bamboo that I'm cutting is soft or easy. Privet is tough, stringy wood, and everyone knows about the toughness of bamboo. The Cold Steel machete makes the cuts with ease. I'm very, very pleased. This thing is incredibly light, and it's lightness combined with it's sharpness means less effort from me is required to do the job. I've used a lot of edged cutting tools in my time, and there are a lot of tools out there that don't live up to their hype. This machete-onna-stick is a high-value product that lives up to every positive comment on this page. This is the first Cold Steel product that I've owned, but I swear it won't be the last. If all of their products are as sturdy as this machete; you damn betcha I'm going to buy more Cold Steel blades. I can't overemphasize the degree of toughness of the crap that I'm cutting, nor the degree of sharpness that I really need in order to clear my land without killing myself with overexertion. The carbon steel on this product is exactly what I wanted: it holds an edge very well yet it takes little effort from me to bring it back to the factory edge. (the factory edge, while not shaving-sharp, is only a hair away from it, exactly what is called for in a bush-whacking tool.) Five well-earned stars for the Cold Steel machete-onna-stick.

Who doesn't want a Big Bowie Knife that also happens to be a Machete. This thing is great, fits the hand solid. The handle is smooth but stays put. It has good weight to it for that chopping benefit, it comes pretty sharp, although everyone has a different position on sharpness. And it comes with a sheath that is really great, my Ontario SP10 should have a sheath like this, really well suited to the Black Bear Bowie. I give this thing 5 stars, it's simple but will do the job you need it to do. For campers, hunters, bushcrafters this Bowie would be a welcome addition to your gear kit. It was like a really great price from Amazon, if you have people to buy for, get them all one.

Eine einfache, schlichte, fast schon martialisch anmutende Arbeitsmachte, die im Finish zwar nur mäsig punktet, bei der dafür aber nicht am Stahl und an der Codura-Scheide gespart wurde. Das Ganze gibt es zu einem wirklich angemessenen Preis. Sicher werden einige sagen, diese Machete käme im Finish nicht an ihre vertrauten Solinger Stahlwaren heran, sähe man an den Kanten doch noch die Stanzspuren, sei das Heft zwar ergonomisch und griffig, aber doch auch sehr einfach und lieblos in der Anmutung. Aber wir reden immer noch von einem Arbeitsgerät. Dass dieses Arbeitsgerät eine gut wärmebehandelte, gleichermaßen zähe wie harte Legierung aufweist, deren feinkörniges, martensitisches Gefüge sich bald rasiermessergleich herausschleifen lässt und die darüber noch lange schnitthaltig bleibt, auch wenn sie mit Harthölzern gefordert wird, sollte entgültig überzeugen. In deutschen Katalogen, Onlineshops und Läden feilgebotene, vermeintlich in D. hergestellten Macheten werben großspurig mit "wertigem" 420er Stahl, aber das ist lächerlich. Chrom ist ein Schneidenschädling und bestenfalls für Küchenmesser geeignet. Wer grob hauen oder sehr fein schneiden möchte, sollte deshalb auf rostfreie Stähle verzichten lernen und damit leben sein Werkzeug entweder trocken zu lagern oder nach Gebrauch mit einem öligen Lappen abzuziehen. Wenn man das Ölen vergisst, macht es auch nix, sofern nichts besonders saueres am Stahl frisst, weil auch dieser Stahl leidlich rostträge ist. Wenn man die Machete auspackt erschaudert man kurz, so mächtig und massiv mutet sie an. Viel Stahl fürs Geld. Sie flext nicht, weil sie doch 3 Milimeter stark ist und es lässt sich eine - nicht nur gemessen am Einsatzzweck - sehr feine Schneide herausschleifen, die sogar einer Rasur genügen würde, die darüber auch hält, also weder zu schnell abstumpft, noch ausbricht oder eindellt. Die Machete erinnert insgesamt mehr an eine Waffe als an ein Forstwerkzeug, Assoziationen zu den Orkwaffen aus dem "Herr der Ringe" Epos liegen nahe. Für eine Waffe wäre sie aber zu schwer und träge, was aber für ein Hauwerkzeug im schweren Gelände wiederum ideal ist. Sie ist trotz ihres hohen Gewichtes dank des griffigen Beidhänderheftes aus Kunststoff sehr führig, auch bei Schweißnässe. Sie ist aber keine Gras- o Schilflandmachete, dafür ermüdet man damit zu schnell. Sie ist eher fürs harte Unterholz vorgesehen und sollte man keine Axt zur Hand haben, erledigt sie deren Aufgaben auch gleich mit, ohne sich dabei Blöße zu geben. Ich kann das Produkt empfehlen. Ergänzend sollte man sich trotzdem noch eine leichte und dünne einhändige Machete vorhalten, eben für die weniger holzigen Pflanzen um nicht zu ermüden. Unterschätzen sie nicht, wie wuchtig und schwer das Werkzeug am Ende daherkommt.

Pros: Light but enough weight at end to chop like a small axe. Came with a rough but effective edge. Decent quality steel with enough flex as to not easily warp & break. Comes with a sheath. Big enough to do light to moderate chopping, hacking & slashing. Can even use the flat tip as a small shovel. Blade came with a coat of oil so you know the product & its steel was made & handled with professional care. Product arrived in just a few days. Price was unbeatable!!! Cons: The sheath though serves its purpose well & the snap buckles hold the blade snug because of the design I would be careful slinging it around on your packsack, etc to rigorously as I have a slight concern of the snaps coming undone over time & the blade falling out BUT sew a couple small pieces of velcro or an other buckle or two & it should holdfast. I should be getting quite a bit of use out of this simple yet extremely versatile piece of equipment. All in all for the price I give it 5/5 stars.

L'ho appena ricevuto: quarantasei centimetri de fero! Una cosa che apprezzo è che arriva con la lama ingrassata, il fodero ha il puntale rinforzato il plastica rigida. Non l'ho ancora usato (sto in campagna e lo userò x la legna) ma sembra molto comodo, il manico sagomato in quel modo aiuta a mantenere salda la presa, anche se la plastica è piuttosto scivolosa e il peso del colpo va a gravare molto sul mignolo. Penso che proverò a immergerlo nel plastidip (come suggerito da un utente) per dargli maggiore grip. Edit: ho rivestito il manico con del Nastro grip per bastoni da hockey e va benissimo, molto comodo. Dato che il manico non è dritto, ci vuole un po' di attenzione per attaccarlo in modo che non faccia pieghe.

It showed up as advertised dimensions are nearly spot on and no warps in the blade oiled before shipped so if whiped clean there would be more oil inside the scabbard only complaint is actual width of the steel at 1/8th of an inch i would gladly pay more for a thicker cold steel product still the steel is strong and doesnt bend when swung around overall a great product for the price I paid