Trav from United States, CO Public Profile

The Ontario Knife machete is a basic one with the blade around 13" long. I acquired it sometime around the late 2000's as it was stuck in the backside of a tree at a campground and left there. So I pulled it out and put it in my truck. That machete is a perfect little machete for chopping little branches of 1" or less in a quick shallow angle swing. Shallow as in probably 20-25 degrees off the plane of the branch, that way the branch doesn't deflect and your force goes into the cut. It was a flawless machete and would have been still if I hadn't lent it to a friend to cut some pine branches off the trees near his house. I don't think he ever used a machete before (I had one when I was 10 or so, probably 18" and cheap) so I think he twisted when hitting and he took two chunks out of the blade right next to each other maybe 1/4" deep. I fixed it with a flap wheel on an angle grinder and never had anything else happen to it from my use.

I also keep a Silky Big Boy saw in the truck as well as an Estwing hatchet. Machete for little branches, hatchet for 1"-2" stuff and Silky for 2"-5" and often I'll bring along a DeWalt 20v chainsaw for campfire wood so that might get used.

Why am I telling you this?

That is the kind of stuff I use a machete for and that is how it fits in with the other tools I carry. The Ontario Knife one is quite a bit lighter but that makes it very flickable for small brush/branches but less useful for bigger stuff.

This Kershaw is quite a bit heav

I bring mine camping, mostly to boil water for dehydrated meals or to warm up with. When I first got it I lived in AK and my wife and I would go motorcycle camping quite often. This fit in one of the saddlebags and we'd heat up canned food mostly, and bring it into rest area toilets to warm up and dry off when it would rain. I did pick up some spare parts like an extra pump but have yet to use it as the oem one is still working great as I oil it once in a while. I also only run gasoline through mine as when I would take it motorcycling I would just pull the line off the petcock and fill the stove up that way.

When first started it will throw a decent flame up until the gas tube heats up enough, usually only takes a few seconds though.