Machete review.
Ontario Beavertail, Aki SBM, and Livesay RCM By Matthew Rapaport October, 1999
The Ross Aki Straight Backed Machete
Newt Livesay's Recon Combat MacheteA couple of years ago Tactical Knives did an article on the Ontario line of machetes. They pointed out that mose low-end machetes (the Ontarios qualifying for their $13 price tags) were flimsy affairs fabricated from too-soft metals that left much to be desired in both comfort and cutting ability. Yet the Ontario brand were different. All of them a substantial piece of decent metal, an acceptable if mediocre plastic handle, and over all a good cutting instrument and reasonably comfortable to use at the price. Of course there are a few other machetes in the under $35 range that are also supposed to be reasonably good, but I have no experience with these, so I use the Ontario as a benchmark for purposes of comparison to two higher end machetes I have recently acquired.I've had an Ontario Beaver tail model for a few years and its cut a lot of weeds and brush, especially blackberries. Earlier this summer I got to wondering what a higher end machete might be like. Indeed what would prompt someone to buy a machete for $100 more dollars if there was such an acceptable version at $13? Earlier this summer I decided to find out. About a year earlier I'd stumbled upon the work of knife maker Newt Livesay. His Model 121 Recon Combat Machete (RCM for short) looked interesting, and I wanted to see what made a good machete tick. So I forked over $150 and soon received a beautiful piece of steel that Tactical Knives reviewed a few months after I got mine (November 99).
The moment one sees the RCM one knows why it is the high end compared to the Ontario. It is ground from 3/16 stock, compared to 1/8 for the Ontario. It is also wider and longer. The handle is much wider than that of the Ontario, and finished with beautiful Micarta with a comfortable bulge in the center that index the machete in the hand for three positions: forward for delicate work, middle for most chopping, and rear for maximum force. The RCM is a little lighter than the Ontario because my beaver tail model widens near the tip putting a lot more metal out ahead of the handle. The RCM is also flat ground all the way from the spine to the edge, while the Ontario is flat, a full 1/8 inch thick across most of the blade, angled down to the edge only in the last 1/4" or so of blade. The edge geometry, extra length, and lightness, combine to make the RCM a better cutter yet still stronger thanks to the thicker spine. I'll get into the cutting tests below.
Near the end of this summer I came across another knife maker, Ross Aki of Hawaii. This fellow has an interesting theory about knife making for cutting's sake. Thin is better, and he takes it to some extremes, but with near state of the art metals. So I plunked down another $100 and one week later had a brand new Ross Aki Straight Backed Machete (SBM) in my hands...
The SBM is exactly the same length as the RCM (18.5" over all), and maybe 1/2 inch narrower. It is only 1/16 inch thick, half the thickness of the Ontario! Indeed it is so thin that you can make it wobble a little when you hold it, and can easily bend it (albeit not to the breaking point) with your bare hands! If you think its like the soft metaled cheap machetes I mentioned up at the top of this article though, you'd be very wrong.
In the first place, this is ATS-34. Next the temper is very springy, and finally, it was given a convex edge which is thin enough to shave not only the hairs on your arms and legs, but facial stubble, and I know because I tried it! Right out of the bag, the SBM was easily the sharpest knife I own! My guess is it weighs less than half the Ontario which makes it just about disappear on your belt - see carry below.
Ross doesn't put a slab handle on it as he explains that any means of attachment would invariably work itself loose given the flexibility of the tool. So he wraps the handle area with a really nice thick cord, and does it in such a way (instructions for rewrapping are included) that the cord forms a nice oval handle around the tang. I have to say that I am very impressed with the comfort of the handle and the piece over all given its unbelievable lightness.
CarryThe RCM comes with a thick, strong kydex sheath having a nice belt loop, and grommets drilled up and down its length. Newt also includes a lot of parachute cord threaded through the grommets in cross hatch fashion like shoe laces. The sheath can be carried on the belt, or strapped to some LBE in a couple of different ways. The SBM comes in a much thinner kydex sheath, which while not very strong compared to that of the RCM, is still adequate given the lightness of the SBM. There is no belt loop however (an inadequacy Ross tells me he will address in the near future), but the whole is so light that an old tie down strap, some parachute cord, and a little duct tape, quickly make a servicable carry system.
The RCM has a hole for a lanyard or cord loop which I very much like to put around my hand, across the palm, as an additional assist in keeping my hand in the right place on the handle. The light weight of the SBM makes this less necessary I suppose, but I would still liked to have seen a lanyard hole in the butt of the SBM, as a cord loop would still be useful to prevent a fatigued hand from creeping up on the blade when using the machete for long periods. Ross has told me that he is happy to add a lanyard hole for anyone who asks about it. It is, as he put it, a "no cost option."
CuttingSo how do they all stack up where it counts, in the cutting? First lets review what exactly I have to cut. Mostly, around my place, there are tall grasses and weeds. The grasses are soft and can reach 5' in height, while the weeds can get to that and more and are not so soft as grass, but not by any means hard wood either. Some of them, the most interesting, appear to be related to bamboo with hollow stems growing to 1/2" or more in diameter. Besides this, there are blackberries! Many of you may not know about blackberries, but they are a very thorny densly tangled vine whose tissue is more soft than hard, but it is also very springy. Finally, there is also some wood, small logs ranging from a 2" to 6" across that gets split constantly for a small fire pit we use a lot to cook in the summer. This wood is pine, not a super hard wood, but not soft.
First, the grasses... One should note that the Ontario is horrible on grasses. It just pushes them out of the way and cuts nothing. Another way to skin this cat is to grab a hank of grass in your fist and cut under your hand with the machete. The Ontario works here, but takes two wacks to cut its way through a hank of grass... Bear in mind that this is a clumsey position and one can not get a full speed swing with any machete as one risks ones own leg (at the shin or ankle) by doing so.
The RCM isn't much better than the Ontario. It also pushes the grasses down, but to its credit, it only takes one swipe, usually, to cut through a hank of grass. The SBM is something else again. Much faster than the RCM, it actually cuts some of the grass, almost 50% sometimes, before pushing the rest down. It requires only one swipe to cut a hank. Thanks to its lightness however, the SBM is more pleasant to use in this very awkward position for machete use.
Wood is something else again. I've split 6" logs with my RCM, though I prefer to keep them at 4" or less for such chores. Chopping down a medium wood sapling of up to 4" diameter is not much problem for the RCM, and even in the two inch range, which the SBM can probably handle, I didn't want to stress out a $95 machete just for the sake of getting a more detailed review. I did take a wack at a few hard saplings in the 1/2 to 3/4 inch range. The SBM bounced back from these, though it did produce a deep cut in the process, and cut through on the second stroke (sometimes the third). The RCM, however, cut through these in a single stroke without problem.
The RCM seems obviously to be preferred in a harder wood area where something other than brush and vines are to be cut. I believe in fitting the tool to the job, and in this case, the mission goes to the RCM. I do note that it is on these harder woody tissues that the Ontario works best as well, but not quite as well as the RCM. First it is not nearly as comfortable to hold all day, and second, its cuts are not quite as deep, but for $13, it is certainly a good deal at the price.
The bamboo-like weeds could sometimes (though rarely) be cut cleanly, even with the Ontario. Stiffer than the grasses, they would not be so easily pushed out of the way. The RCM went through them like butter felling small stands up to 8 or 9" across with as many as 6 or 7 stems in a single cut. One has to take care to bring the RCM up to sufficient speed to make these kinds of cuts, but it wasn't difficult to do. The RCM never failed to cut these weeds in a single stroke.
The SBM came next. The results were good. First it went through most of the weed types up to 1/2" in diameter in a single stroke, and much more easily than did the RCM, primarily due to its lightness, but it wouldn't cut as many down simultaneously. Being lighter, it was much less tiring to use, but I noticed that as I worked my way into a stand of dead weeds that had become woodier, the SBM bounced back from many of the cuts (though it still cut deeply) while the RCM went right through the dead stems. On the greener stalks, the RCM made a distinctive crack when it cut, while the SBM was much quieter, sometimes barely a whisper as it severed the them.
Like grasses, these cuts were made horizontally making it harder to take advantage of the SBM's light weight. I began a new series of tests by bending the weeds back at a 45deg. angle and then cutting vertically into the center of the curve formed by the bend. Both machetes cut the green weeds cleanly through every time, but when I moved to the woodier material, the SBM began to bounce back a bit, frequently requiring two strokes to cut, while the RCM continued to sever them in a single stroke.
That leaves the blackberries...
Blackberry bushes are a good test of some cutting instruments. On the hard side of fleshy, they also tangle around one another in such a way as to support themselves with a great deal of springiness. The Ontario machete, for example, will hardly cut them at all. Indeed it barely dents them and just pushes them away. Even if you grip a vine with one gloved hand and cut with the other, it can take two or three good wacks with the Ontario to cut through a 1/2" diameter vine.
The Livesay RCM is a bit better. Swung fast enough, it will cut deep into a blackberry vine, but not usually deep enough to sever it. It still pushes the vine aside at the end of the stroke. Howver it will sever most vines easily in one cut if you stabilize them with one hand while cutting with the other.
I tried these experiments with a neighbor. We both tried the Ontario, then the RCM until we had a pretty good feel for how they compared when cutting in various directions and on vines of different thickness. We tried the SBM last and were amazed at the results. Swung fast enough, relatively easy to do given its light weight, it cleanly severed vines up to 3/4 inch in diameter without pushing them aside. We both did this over and over again assuring ourselves that our first strokes were not a fluke. Of course all bets are off if you can't get a clean swipe at one vine. Even the SBM could not cleanly sever a vine if other vines interfered with the stroke, but when cutting a vine stabilized with the other hand, it never failed to cut at one stroke!
ConclusionsShown against the backdrop of the low end Ontario Machete, one can see what makes the higher end credible, but the buyer should not expect a Livesay $150 machete to cut literally 15x better than an Ontario Beaver tail which can be had for less than $15 in many catalogs. The buyer does get a considerable improvement in cutting ability, as well as ergonomic factors like the better handle, better balance, a longer stroke for the weight, etc. The same is true for the SBM, but in a dramatically different way, as the SBM emphasizes thinness and lightness delivering a far superior cut for reasons of both edge geometry and speed than either of the other two machetes. What Ross Aki traded away in this approach was durability where cutting of larger woodier or fiberous tissues is the primary requirement.
Both are beautiful machetes, but each is designed with a very different class of plant tissues in mind. If I had to chop down a palm tree, build a shelter in any of the northern temperate forests I know, or hack down wrist sized fibrous stems like hemp, I would unhesitatingly choose the RCM. Though I'd much rather hike with the lightness of the SBM, it is the RCM that goes into my automobile trunk jump kit because if the road is blocked, its much more likely to be a fallen tree than a big bush. Ironically, much of what the public perceives of machete use in tropical jungles, the hacking of a trail through tangled underbrush and vines, is far better suited to the SBM. Around my own neighborhood, I find myself cutting grasses, high weeds, brush, and blackberries more often than anything else. For these tasks, the SBM is to be preferred because its lightness makes it more comfortable to carry and use all day, while its thinness makes it cut better on these plant tissues most of the time.
I like both of these machetes. In their own way, they are both works of art and well engineered cutting instruments. Of the two, the RCM is by far the more macho and visually striking, but there is a certain appeal in the extreme light weight and simplicity of the SBM that widens people's eyes when they see or feel for themselves how easily it cuts. All in all, they are both good machetes, especially when applied to the types of plant tissue each cuts best.
Ontario Beavertail, Aki SBM, and Livesay RCM By Matthew Rapaport October, 1999
The Ross Aki Straight Backed Machete
Newt Livesay's Recon Combat MacheteA couple of years ago Tactical Knives did an article on the Ontario line of machetes. They pointed out that mose low-end machetes (the Ontarios qualifying for their $13 price tags) were flimsy affairs fabricated from too-soft metals that left much to be desired in both comfort and cutting ability. Yet the Ontario brand were different. All of them a substantial piece of decent metal, an acceptable if mediocre plastic handle, and over all a good cutting instrument and reasonably comfortable to use at the price. Of course there are a few other machetes in the under $35 range that are also supposed to be reasonably good, but I have no experience with these, so I use the Ontario as a benchmark for purposes of comparison to two higher end machetes I have recently acquired.I've had an Ontario Beaver tail model for a few years and its cut a lot of weeds and brush, especially blackberries. Earlier this summer I got to wondering what a higher end machete might be like. Indeed what would prompt someone to buy a machete for $100 more dollars if there was such an acceptable version at $13? Earlier this summer I decided to find out. About a year earlier I'd stumbled upon the work of knife maker Newt Livesay. His Model 121 Recon Combat Machete (RCM for short) looked interesting, and I wanted to see what made a good machete tick. So I forked over $150 and soon received a beautiful piece of steel that Tactical Knives reviewed a few months after I got mine (November 99).
The moment one sees the RCM one knows why it is the high end compared to the Ontario. It is ground from 3/16 stock, compared to 1/8 for the Ontario. It is also wider and longer. The handle is much wider than that of the Ontario, and finished with beautiful Micarta with a comfortable bulge in the center that index the machete in the hand for three positions: forward for delicate work, middle for most chopping, and rear for maximum force. The RCM is a little lighter than the Ontario because my beaver tail model widens near the tip putting a lot more metal out ahead of the handle. The RCM is also flat ground all the way from the spine to the edge, while the Ontario is flat, a full 1/8 inch thick across most of the blade, angled down to the edge only in the last 1/4" or so of blade. The edge geometry, extra length, and lightness, combine to make the RCM a better cutter yet still stronger thanks to the thicker spine. I'll get into the cutting tests below.
Near the end of this summer I came across another knife maker, Ross Aki of Hawaii. This fellow has an interesting theory about knife making for cutting's sake. Thin is better, and he takes it to some extremes, but with near state of the art metals. So I plunked down another $100 and one week later had a brand new Ross Aki Straight Backed Machete (SBM) in my hands...
The SBM is exactly the same length as the RCM (18.5" over all), and maybe 1/2 inch narrower. It is only 1/16 inch thick, half the thickness of the Ontario! Indeed it is so thin that you can make it wobble a little when you hold it, and can easily bend it (albeit not to the breaking point) with your bare hands! If you think its like the soft metaled cheap machetes I mentioned up at the top of this article though, you'd be very wrong.
In the first place, this is ATS-34. Next the temper is very springy, and finally, it was given a convex edge which is thin enough to shave not only the hairs on your arms and legs, but facial stubble, and I know because I tried it! Right out of the bag, the SBM was easily the sharpest knife I own! My guess is it weighs less than half the Ontario which makes it just about disappear on your belt - see carry below.
Ross doesn't put a slab handle on it as he explains that any means of attachment would invariably work itself loose given the flexibility of the tool. So he wraps the handle area with a really nice thick cord, and does it in such a way (instructions for rewrapping are included) that the cord forms a nice oval handle around the tang. I have to say that I am very impressed with the comfort of the handle and the piece over all given its unbelievable lightness.
CarryThe RCM comes with a thick, strong kydex sheath having a nice belt loop, and grommets drilled up and down its length. Newt also includes a lot of parachute cord threaded through the grommets in cross hatch fashion like shoe laces. The sheath can be carried on the belt, or strapped to some LBE in a couple of different ways. The SBM comes in a much thinner kydex sheath, which while not very strong compared to that of the RCM, is still adequate given the lightness of the SBM. There is no belt loop however (an inadequacy Ross tells me he will address in the near future), but the whole is so light that an old tie down strap, some parachute cord, and a little duct tape, quickly make a servicable carry system.
The RCM has a hole for a lanyard or cord loop which I very much like to put around my hand, across the palm, as an additional assist in keeping my hand in the right place on the handle. The light weight of the SBM makes this less necessary I suppose, but I would still liked to have seen a lanyard hole in the butt of the SBM, as a cord loop would still be useful to prevent a fatigued hand from creeping up on the blade when using the machete for long periods. Ross has told me that he is happy to add a lanyard hole for anyone who asks about it. It is, as he put it, a "no cost option."
CuttingSo how do they all stack up where it counts, in the cutting? First lets review what exactly I have to cut. Mostly, around my place, there are tall grasses and weeds. The grasses are soft and can reach 5' in height, while the weeds can get to that and more and are not so soft as grass, but not by any means hard wood either. Some of them, the most interesting, appear to be related to bamboo with hollow stems growing to 1/2" or more in diameter. Besides this, there are blackberries! Many of you may not know about blackberries, but they are a very thorny densly tangled vine whose tissue is more soft than hard, but it is also very springy. Finally, there is also some wood, small logs ranging from a 2" to 6" across that gets split constantly for a small fire pit we use a lot to cook in the summer. This wood is pine, not a super hard wood, but not soft.
First, the grasses... One should note that the Ontario is horrible on grasses. It just pushes them out of the way and cuts nothing. Another way to skin this cat is to grab a hank of grass in your fist and cut under your hand with the machete. The Ontario works here, but takes two wacks to cut its way through a hank of grass... Bear in mind that this is a clumsey position and one can not get a full speed swing with any machete as one risks ones own leg (at the shin or ankle) by doing so.
The RCM isn't much better than the Ontario. It also pushes the grasses down, but to its credit, it only takes one swipe, usually, to cut through a hank of grass. The SBM is something else again. Much faster than the RCM, it actually cuts some of the grass, almost 50% sometimes, before pushing the rest down. It requires only one swipe to cut a hank. Thanks to its lightness however, the SBM is more pleasant to use in this very awkward position for machete use.
Wood is something else again. I've split 6" logs with my RCM, though I prefer to keep them at 4" or less for such chores. Chopping down a medium wood sapling of up to 4" diameter is not much problem for the RCM, and even in the two inch range, which the SBM can probably handle, I didn't want to stress out a $95 machete just for the sake of getting a more detailed review. I did take a wack at a few hard saplings in the 1/2 to 3/4 inch range. The SBM bounced back from these, though it did produce a deep cut in the process, and cut through on the second stroke (sometimes the third). The RCM, however, cut through these in a single stroke without problem.
The RCM seems obviously to be preferred in a harder wood area where something other than brush and vines are to be cut. I believe in fitting the tool to the job, and in this case, the mission goes to the RCM. I do note that it is on these harder woody tissues that the Ontario works best as well, but not quite as well as the RCM. First it is not nearly as comfortable to hold all day, and second, its cuts are not quite as deep, but for $13, it is certainly a good deal at the price.
The bamboo-like weeds could sometimes (though rarely) be cut cleanly, even with the Ontario. Stiffer than the grasses, they would not be so easily pushed out of the way. The RCM went through them like butter felling small stands up to 8 or 9" across with as many as 6 or 7 stems in a single cut. One has to take care to bring the RCM up to sufficient speed to make these kinds of cuts, but it wasn't difficult to do. The RCM never failed to cut these weeds in a single stroke.
The SBM came next. The results were good. First it went through most of the weed types up to 1/2" in diameter in a single stroke, and much more easily than did the RCM, primarily due to its lightness, but it wouldn't cut as many down simultaneously. Being lighter, it was much less tiring to use, but I noticed that as I worked my way into a stand of dead weeds that had become woodier, the SBM bounced back from many of the cuts (though it still cut deeply) while the RCM went right through the dead stems. On the greener stalks, the RCM made a distinctive crack when it cut, while the SBM was much quieter, sometimes barely a whisper as it severed the them.
Like grasses, these cuts were made horizontally making it harder to take advantage of the SBM's light weight. I began a new series of tests by bending the weeds back at a 45deg. angle and then cutting vertically into the center of the curve formed by the bend. Both machetes cut the green weeds cleanly through every time, but when I moved to the woodier material, the SBM began to bounce back a bit, frequently requiring two strokes to cut, while the RCM continued to sever them in a single stroke.
That leaves the blackberries...
Blackberry bushes are a good test of some cutting instruments. On the hard side of fleshy, they also tangle around one another in such a way as to support themselves with a great deal of springiness. The Ontario machete, for example, will hardly cut them at all. Indeed it barely dents them and just pushes them away. Even if you grip a vine with one gloved hand and cut with the other, it can take two or three good wacks with the Ontario to cut through a 1/2" diameter vine.
The Livesay RCM is a bit better. Swung fast enough, it will cut deep into a blackberry vine, but not usually deep enough to sever it. It still pushes the vine aside at the end of the stroke. Howver it will sever most vines easily in one cut if you stabilize them with one hand while cutting with the other.
I tried these experiments with a neighbor. We both tried the Ontario, then the RCM until we had a pretty good feel for how they compared when cutting in various directions and on vines of different thickness. We tried the SBM last and were amazed at the results. Swung fast enough, relatively easy to do given its light weight, it cleanly severed vines up to 3/4 inch in diameter without pushing them aside. We both did this over and over again assuring ourselves that our first strokes were not a fluke. Of course all bets are off if you can't get a clean swipe at one vine. Even the SBM could not cleanly sever a vine if other vines interfered with the stroke, but when cutting a vine stabilized with the other hand, it never failed to cut at one stroke!
ConclusionsShown against the backdrop of the low end Ontario Machete, one can see what makes the higher end credible, but the buyer should not expect a Livesay $150 machete to cut literally 15x better than an Ontario Beaver tail which can be had for less than $15 in many catalogs. The buyer does get a considerable improvement in cutting ability, as well as ergonomic factors like the better handle, better balance, a longer stroke for the weight, etc. The same is true for the SBM, but in a dramatically different way, as the SBM emphasizes thinness and lightness delivering a far superior cut for reasons of both edge geometry and speed than either of the other two machetes. What Ross Aki traded away in this approach was durability where cutting of larger woodier or fiberous tissues is the primary requirement.
Both are beautiful machetes, but each is designed with a very different class of plant tissues in mind. If I had to chop down a palm tree, build a shelter in any of the northern temperate forests I know, or hack down wrist sized fibrous stems like hemp, I would unhesitatingly choose the RCM. Though I'd much rather hike with the lightness of the SBM, it is the RCM that goes into my automobile trunk jump kit because if the road is blocked, its much more likely to be a fallen tree than a big bush. Ironically, much of what the public perceives of machete use in tropical jungles, the hacking of a trail through tangled underbrush and vines, is far better suited to the SBM. Around my own neighborhood, I find myself cutting grasses, high weeds, brush, and blackberries more often than anything else. For these tasks, the SBM is to be preferred because its lightness makes it more comfortable to carry and use all day, while its thinness makes it cut better on these plant tissues most of the time.
I like both of these machetes. In their own way, they are both works of art and well engineered cutting instruments. Of the two, the RCM is by far the more macho and visually striking, but there is a certain appeal in the extreme light weight and simplicity of the SBM that widens people's eyes when they see or feel for themselves how easily it cuts. All in all, they are both good machetes, especially when applied to the types of plant tissue each cuts best.
Ross Aki Straight-Back Machete Review
by Chiro75
OverviewI came across the Aki Knife and Machete website one day while browsing and I was very impressed with all the designs I saw there. Ross Aki's knives and machetes are mainly from ATS-34 stainless steel that he cuts, grinds, and heat treats in-house. The lines of the pieces are simple, elegant, and functional, and I knew right away that here was a maker with different ideas who needed some extra exposure, so I emailed Ross to ask about getting a hold of a knife, machete, or both to test. Ross had a blemished machete that he could not sell, so he sent it to me and, nearly 2 months later (sorry, I work slowly!), this review is the result!
Appearance and Construction
Here is a photo of the Straight Back after some serious work. Note that the log was mainly brought to this condition by a variety of Himalayan Imports khukuris, although I did make a few chops with the Straight-Back, too. It was unfazed!Ross makes a variety of machete styles and fine-tunes the specs on them depending on the use they are intended for. The 1/16" Straight Back model is intended for vines, grasses, and non-woody weeds. If you were going to use the machete more for chopping duties, Ross would probably recommend a 3/16" thick parang-style machete or something along those lines. The overall length is 18" with a cutting edge of 11.5" and width of 1.75" throughout. The machete is 1/16" thick through its entire length (blade and handle). The handle (measured from the beginning of the wrapping to the end of the tang) is 5". For those interested in total space occupied, the Straight Back has an OAL of 18.5" and 2.5" width when in the sheath. Despite the dimensions, the machete I tested was unbelievably lightweight, making it a great candidate for hikers, campers, etc. In fact, the machete alone does not seem to weigh too much more than a REKAT Pioneer I, and with the sheath the machete probably weighs about the same as two of these 7" OAL folders! I am not sure why Ross considered this to be a blem, as I could find no flaws, even after emailing him and inquiring about it! The knife came razor sharp with very clean edge bevels and nicely radiused edges everywhere else, making it a joy to use for other applications, as you will see. The knife is full thickness all the way to the edge bevel, so I suppose you could say it has a very short v-grind that appeared to possibly have a little convexity to it (tough for me to tell, usually). The machete comes with a 0.060" thickness black Kydex scabbard that is simple and well made. Retention is great, and there is no belt loop. If I were taking it into the field with other equipment I would drill holes in between the rivets so I could lash the sheath to a pack, and there is plenty of border along the edge to do this. The Kydex is simple and no-nonsense, adding to the pure functionality to this piece. Also of interest is the fact that instead of traditional wood, Micarta, or some other handle scales, Ross uses a cord-wrapped design. This serves several pragmatic purposes:
1) The cord wrapping can be replaced as it wears.
2) Traditional scales are heavier.
3) A knife this thin can sometimes present problems with scales as the flexibility may cause the epoxy to crack and pins to loosen.
4) The knife can be stripped bare for thorough cleaning, reconditioning, and retempering.
5) The handle is soft, comfortable, and offers excellent grip contour, which would otherwise be a challenge on a machete this thin.
Just to top off the package, Ross includes very precise and easy to understand instructions on how to modifiy the tightness of the cord-wrapping, how to rewrap the cord if you remove it, and for retempering the machete after heavy use (more on that later). Technical instructions are difficult to write, and it is obvious that Ross took the effort to make them understandable and very much worth reading. Quite simply, as with your first chop from a Himalayan Imports khukuri, nothing can quite prepare you to what a knife of this size with a 1/16" thickness feels like! It was a joy to use, but seemed fragile at first. Read on to see if it really WAS fragile! ;-)
Synopsis of Testing and Results
***For a full review, please scan down a bit***
*The Straight Back machete did a phenomenal job on viny, slightly woody weeds of all thicknesses I came across. It cut them cleanly with one stroke, and suffered no edge dulling or deformation from this type of testing. This is where the Straight Back really shines!
*For actual wood tree branches, the machete did better than expected. Up to 3/4" thick branches were cut on one stroke, and others required a few chops, but nothing outrageous. There was little detectable edge change even after extensive testing. The machete has not been re-shrpened, yet remains my sharpest knife to date in my possession!
*On very light grasses the machete performed well, although a big factor was cutting technique when dealing with this medium. This grass was so light and unobtrusive that in a real field situation, no one would have bothered cutting it in the first place.
*The machete cut cleanly through a soda can full of water with no problems whatsoever.
*The Straight Back is plenty light, with the sheath included, of course, for carrying in any situation. I did light hiking with it as well as mountain biking, and it was unnoticeable from a weight point of view.
*The machete performed adequately for non-traditional tasks such as meal preparation. It could serve as a stand-along field knife if needed to.
Initial TestingI started off my testing really light for several reasons, the first being that I have little experience with machetes in general and, as such, do not know their limitations like I do other knives. Also, there was some speculation on Bladeforums that an ATS-34 machete of these dimensions would literally fall apart after about 60 minutes of use! So, the first step was to do some light cutting in the yard. I chopped a bunch of mint shrubs that grow along the fence and, with that pleasing scent in the air, I went on to some long, thin grasses and trimmed up the bushes in the front yard, too. The machete cut SO well that I could hardly believe it, and I was really disappointed when there was nothing less to cut. I went at some more mint at the end of the driveway and, unbeknownst to me, there was a cement border hiding in all the weeds. It didn't take long for me to crack the end of the machete right against the cement (by this time I was taking full power swings), and I was sure I did major damage to this 1/16" stock tool. Upon inspection there were a few deep grooves that ran onto the edge and folded it, but with about two minutes of sharpening on a Norton fine India stone, it was back to reasonable shape. Not quite as sharp as original, but really nice considering I just smashed the thing against a cement block at full force and at a glancing angle! Needless to say, my trepidations concerning toughness were gone, to say the least!
Our new pound puppy, Nya, tests the sharpness of the Straight Back and is impressed! I'm surprised she didn't try to eat it!
Field TestingNow it was time to get more serious, and trust me when I tell you Iowa has plenty of weeds growing everywhere in the summertime. I hit some mountain biking trails not too far from home base and, as expected, there were plenty of thick, vine-like weeds that averaged a height of 6-7 feet. Thickness varied from 1/4" on branches to 3/4-1 inch or more (maybe 1.25" at the thickest) on the main stalks, and the weeds were basically a fibrous, somewhat soft green outside with the regular gummy center. I don't know what family of plant this enters, but it was thick, reedy stuff, and it was packed in real tight. I took my first swing and it was at that time that I really fell in love! I left a swath of fallen weeds at a several foot radius around me with the first swing! It was awesome! I kept chopping at full swinging force for over 30 minutes, all the while hearing the now-familar swishing sound of weeds being cut right in half with the greatest of ease! The destruction being done was totally new to me, as none of my khukris cut anything like this on a medium like these weeds. The thing just kept cutting, and cutting, and cutting. I periodically stopped to check the edge, and noticed no change in the feel of edge sharpness. After about 30 minutes my forearm muscles were getting quite tired, and my hand was starting to cramp, so I had to stop. I'd hate to see how long I would last with a heavy knife! By this time, the Straight Back machete was covered in weed guts, and I stuck it right back into the sheath and went home. I cleaned it up about 30 minutes later and the blade looked good as new. I could see no damage except for the unfortunate cement incident, of course. The handle wrap did not loosen much, and was also in good shape, as well as ready to provide more good-grip fun! I dried the knife out and resheathed it, but the sheath was still pretty nasty inside, so I should have washed it out, too.
Here is a picture of the machete after the first round of heavy use.It occurred to me that some people think of machetes as all-around camp knives, so I used the machete in the kitchen to chop up veggies for a pasta dish (broccoli, tomatoes, squash, carrots, etc). The machete wasn't the easiest knife to use in this capacity, but it performed well enough to be considered good at these tasks. For finer chopping I held the blade at the spine way up toward the end, and due to its width this was a fine grip. Passed the kitchen test with no problems, and after chopping on my hardwood butcher's block it was still as sharp as it was on day one. The next battery of testing was another day in the weeds, but this time I attacked more woody stuff, which it chopped almost as easily. I went into the woods and went at some actual branches and 1/2-3/4" wood sticks and, again, the machete was unbeatable. This time I was really trying to damage the thing within reasonable expectations, but I sure couldn't! I know if I'd attacked a tree trunk it wouldn't last forever, but this isn't what I call within reason for this knife. Ross recommends 1/8" or more thickness machetes for this type of wood clearing, but the 1/16" Straight Back worked great for the 30 minutes I chopped woody stuff with it. And, as usual, I could see very little change in the edge. At a few tiny spots I could see minor edge folding (read: almost microscopic) and I could not, honestly, feel any changes in sharpness from the first day of use! Just for fun, I wanted to try a test I have long been curious about, but never tried myself. I filled a pop can with water, set it on a post, and took a swing with the machete. I went about 1/2 steam because I really didn't want anything bad to happen (not having ever done the test before), and when I opened my eyes to survey the damage, the can was cut right in half! I was impressed, although maybe this is an easy test. Looks cool, if nothing else! No change in the edge, either, which I thought would at least be scratched and scraped. Just for comparison purposes, I did the same test with a sharp Himalayan Imports khukuri (15" overall length) and the can was just short of being cut in half. The thinner profile of the Straight-Back was a definite advantage in this test.
Straight Back, sheath, and can.My final day of testing was probably the most interesting and useful. I wanted to go for a mountain bike ride and I had a feeling the trails would be fairly overgrown, so I packed my JANDD water resovoir pack and had perfect space for the machete, too. Being so light I could not detect a weight addition to the small pack, so that is a major plus. As I figured, there was plenty of that weedy stuff to cut, but the real test was a tree that had those greenish-yellow, reticulated, brain-looking fruits on them that people put in pantries to keep spiders away. I don't know what it's called, but the tree branches had overgrown a nice downhill section, so I just had to pare it back. These branches were the real deal, made of wood (as opposed to being "woody") and with a thickness averaging 1/2-3/4". The machete did a great job of hacking through them, which took close to 15 minutes of total chopping time. I had to swing hard and adjust my angle to cut cleanly through the branches, and some required a few swings, but again, I was totally surprised to find that edge in perfect shape, still. It didn't have that razor-edge feel to it, but it still felt plenty sharp, especially for a knife that has seen that much use. If that knife was a "10" in sharpness out of the box, I would say it is now a "9", which is pretty impressive in my book. I also threw the apple-sized, dense and hard fruits into the air and chopped them in half as they were coming back down. This resulted in several minutes of juvenile, destructive pleasure, until I started getting tired of getting sticky juice all over the place!
Here is another shot of the machete after a lot of use. Note all the cobwebs and juice and plant guts all over it. It cleaned up really nicely afterward.
Evaluation and OpinionRoss Aki's Straight Back Machete features classic lines and finish details which make it as much of a joy to look at as to use. Every aspect of this knife's design shows that it is intended to be a simple, no-nonsense tool. The blade was thin yet very tough, and while the edge was razor-like, it was plenty strong, even on tasks that it is not intended for. The machete is versatile enough to stand alone as a field knife, and the Kydex sheath makes a great addition to the overall package. I found no problems when using it, and the exceptional light weight of the machete makes it a tool that is indispensible to a variety of users, including walkers, hikers, backpackers, paddlers, and cyclists. I can't think of a reason any outdoors person would have to not carry an Aki machete like this one. Also of note is the fact that this machete is of ATS-34 stainless steel. This gives the knife the advantage that it will not rust easily in the field. On the other hand, I was warned by several people that the ATS-34 steel is not suitable for an application like a machete and that the blade would break after an hour's use. I think my testing proved that wrong! I was exceptionally pleased with every detail of Ross' interpretation of this classic tool, both aesthetically and functionally. The fact that the knife can be tempered at home adds even more to Mr. Aki's attitude toward knives, primarily that they are meant to be used, not ogled! I loved the light weight (easy on the body) and the cord-wrapped handle, which was very comfortable to use for long periods of time, not to mention how functional it is to the design purpose of the machete.
The Straight-Back passes Darwin's Seal of Approval!My recommendations for change would be to extend the cord on the handle enough so it could be used as a lanyard. When swinging full bore into weeds, after a while you start to fatigue and letting go of the machete accidentally is a very real possibility. A lanyard hole may be a solution, too, although the 1/16" stock may be too thin and might abrade through a cord lanyard too quickly (?). My other suggestion would be to hold the sheath together with screws to allow a belt loop to be added, or to open the sheath for cleaning. Upon use, though, I found the sheath cleans rather well just by running water through it. Scrubbing wouldn't be possible if needed, though. Also, if someone sent me this sheath to add a belt loop I could easily do so, so it is a possibility from an aftermarket source. Finally, I would drill some holes between the rivets in place so I could lash the sheath to equipment, but again, this is easily done at home and there is plenty of a border on the edge to allow one to do this. Overall, Ross Aki can be congratulated on this machete, which is utterly unique in its execution. I would have no problem recommending these machetes with 100% confidence to any user who understands their proper use, and I will carry this one in the field with me everywhere I go! I think you will find all of Ross' knives and machetes follow this same principle of form and function united in perfect balance. He's found a customer in me! ;-) With his permission I'd like to keep the machete and keep using it, hopefully to a point where I think it needs to be stress-relieved through a retempering process. if so, i will update this review when the time comes, but for now you simply cannot buy a better machete from any source that I know of.
Ross Aki Straight-Back Machete Review
by Chiro75
OverviewI came across the Aki Knife and Machete website one day while browsing and I was very impressed with all the designs I saw there. Ross Aki's knives and machetes are mainly from ATS-34 stainless steel that he cuts, grinds, and heat treats in-house. The lines of the pieces are simple, elegant, and functional, and I knew right away that here was a maker with different ideas who needed some extra exposure, so I emailed Ross to ask about getting a hold of a knife, machete, or both to test. Ross had a blemished machete that he could not sell, so he sent it to me and, nearly 2 months later (sorry, I work slowly!), this review is the result!
Appearance and Construction
Here is a photo of the Straight Back after some serious work. Note that the log was mainly brought to this condition by a variety of Himalayan Imports khukuris, although I did make a few chops with the Straight-Back, too. It was unfazed!Ross makes a variety of machete styles and fine-tunes the specs on them depending on the use they are intended for. The 1/16" Straight Back model is intended for vines, grasses, and non-woody weeds. If you were going to use the machete more for chopping duties, Ross would probably recommend a 3/16" thick parang-style machete or something along those lines. The overall length is 18" with a cutting edge of 11.5" and width of 1.75" throughout. The machete is 1/16" thick through its entire length (blade and handle). The handle (measured from the beginning of the wrapping to the end of the tang) is 5". For those interested in total space occupied, the Straight Back has an OAL of 18.5" and 2.5" width when in the sheath. Despite the dimensions, the machete I tested was unbelievably lightweight, making it a great candidate for hikers, campers, etc. In fact, the machete alone does not seem to weigh too much more than a REKAT Pioneer I, and with the sheath the machete probably weighs about the same as two of these 7" OAL folders! I am not sure why Ross considered this to be a blem, as I could find no flaws, even after emailing him and inquiring about it! The knife came razor sharp with very clean edge bevels and nicely radiused edges everywhere else, making it a joy to use for other applications, as you will see. The knife is full thickness all the way to the edge bevel, so I suppose you could say it has a very short v-grind that appeared to possibly have a little convexity to it (tough for me to tell, usually). The machete comes with a 0.060" thickness black Kydex scabbard that is simple and well made. Retention is great, and there is no belt loop. If I were taking it into the field with other equipment I would drill holes in between the rivets so I could lash the sheath to a pack, and there is plenty of border along the edge to do this. The Kydex is simple and no-nonsense, adding to the pure functionality to this piece. Also of interest is the fact that instead of traditional wood, Micarta, or some other handle scales, Ross uses a cord-wrapped design. This serves several pragmatic purposes:
1) The cord wrapping can be replaced as it wears.
2) Traditional scales are heavier.
3) A knife this thin can sometimes present problems with scales as the flexibility may cause the epoxy to crack and pins to loosen.
4) The knife can be stripped bare for thorough cleaning, reconditioning, and retempering.
5) The handle is soft, comfortable, and offers excellent grip contour, which would otherwise be a challenge on a machete this thin.
Just to top off the package, Ross includes very precise and easy to understand instructions on how to modifiy the tightness of the cord-wrapping, how to rewrap the cord if you remove it, and for retempering the machete after heavy use (more on that later). Technical instructions are difficult to write, and it is obvious that Ross took the effort to make them understandable and very much worth reading. Quite simply, as with your first chop from a Himalayan Imports khukuri, nothing can quite prepare you to what a knife of this size with a 1/16" thickness feels like! It was a joy to use, but seemed fragile at first. Read on to see if it really WAS fragile! ;-)
Synopsis of Testing and Results
***For a full review, please scan down a bit***
*The Straight Back machete did a phenomenal job on viny, slightly woody weeds of all thicknesses I came across. It cut them cleanly with one stroke, and suffered no edge dulling or deformation from this type of testing. This is where the Straight Back really shines!
*For actual wood tree branches, the machete did better than expected. Up to 3/4" thick branches were cut on one stroke, and others required a few chops, but nothing outrageous. There was little detectable edge change even after extensive testing. The machete has not been re-shrpened, yet remains my sharpest knife to date in my possession!
*On very light grasses the machete performed well, although a big factor was cutting technique when dealing with this medium. This grass was so light and unobtrusive that in a real field situation, no one would have bothered cutting it in the first place.
*The machete cut cleanly through a soda can full of water with no problems whatsoever.
*The Straight Back is plenty light, with the sheath included, of course, for carrying in any situation. I did light hiking with it as well as mountain biking, and it was unnoticeable from a weight point of view.
*The machete performed adequately for non-traditional tasks such as meal preparation. It could serve as a stand-along field knife if needed to.
Initial TestingI started off my testing really light for several reasons, the first being that I have little experience with machetes in general and, as such, do not know their limitations like I do other knives. Also, there was some speculation on Bladeforums that an ATS-34 machete of these dimensions would literally fall apart after about 60 minutes of use! So, the first step was to do some light cutting in the yard. I chopped a bunch of mint shrubs that grow along the fence and, with that pleasing scent in the air, I went on to some long, thin grasses and trimmed up the bushes in the front yard, too. The machete cut SO well that I could hardly believe it, and I was really disappointed when there was nothing less to cut. I went at some more mint at the end of the driveway and, unbeknownst to me, there was a cement border hiding in all the weeds. It didn't take long for me to crack the end of the machete right against the cement (by this time I was taking full power swings), and I was sure I did major damage to this 1/16" stock tool. Upon inspection there were a few deep grooves that ran onto the edge and folded it, but with about two minutes of sharpening on a Norton fine India stone, it was back to reasonable shape. Not quite as sharp as original, but really nice considering I just smashed the thing against a cement block at full force and at a glancing angle! Needless to say, my trepidations concerning toughness were gone, to say the least!
Our new pound puppy, Nya, tests the sharpness of the Straight Back and is impressed! I'm surprised she didn't try to eat it!
Field TestingNow it was time to get more serious, and trust me when I tell you Iowa has plenty of weeds growing everywhere in the summertime. I hit some mountain biking trails not too far from home base and, as expected, there were plenty of thick, vine-like weeds that averaged a height of 6-7 feet. Thickness varied from 1/4" on branches to 3/4-1 inch or more (maybe 1.25" at the thickest) on the main stalks, and the weeds were basically a fibrous, somewhat soft green outside with the regular gummy center. I don't know what family of plant this enters, but it was thick, reedy stuff, and it was packed in real tight. I took my first swing and it was at that time that I really fell in love! I left a swath of fallen weeds at a several foot radius around me with the first swing! It was awesome! I kept chopping at full swinging force for over 30 minutes, all the while hearing the now-familar swishing sound of weeds being cut right in half with the greatest of ease! The destruction being done was totally new to me, as none of my khukris cut anything like this on a medium like these weeds. The thing just kept cutting, and cutting, and cutting. I periodically stopped to check the edge, and noticed no change in the feel of edge sharpness. After about 30 minutes my forearm muscles were getting quite tired, and my hand was starting to cramp, so I had to stop. I'd hate to see how long I would last with a heavy knife! By this time, the Straight Back machete was covered in weed guts, and I stuck it right back into the sheath and went home. I cleaned it up about 30 minutes later and the blade looked good as new. I could see no damage except for the unfortunate cement incident, of course. The handle wrap did not loosen much, and was also in good shape, as well as ready to provide more good-grip fun! I dried the knife out and resheathed it, but the sheath was still pretty nasty inside, so I should have washed it out, too.
Here is a picture of the machete after the first round of heavy use.It occurred to me that some people think of machetes as all-around camp knives, so I used the machete in the kitchen to chop up veggies for a pasta dish (broccoli, tomatoes, squash, carrots, etc). The machete wasn't the easiest knife to use in this capacity, but it performed well enough to be considered good at these tasks. For finer chopping I held the blade at the spine way up toward the end, and due to its width this was a fine grip. Passed the kitchen test with no problems, and after chopping on my hardwood butcher's block it was still as sharp as it was on day one. The next battery of testing was another day in the weeds, but this time I attacked more woody stuff, which it chopped almost as easily. I went into the woods and went at some actual branches and 1/2-3/4" wood sticks and, again, the machete was unbeatable. This time I was really trying to damage the thing within reasonable expectations, but I sure couldn't! I know if I'd attacked a tree trunk it wouldn't last forever, but this isn't what I call within reason for this knife. Ross recommends 1/8" or more thickness machetes for this type of wood clearing, but the 1/16" Straight Back worked great for the 30 minutes I chopped woody stuff with it. And, as usual, I could see very little change in the edge. At a few tiny spots I could see minor edge folding (read: almost microscopic) and I could not, honestly, feel any changes in sharpness from the first day of use! Just for fun, I wanted to try a test I have long been curious about, but never tried myself. I filled a pop can with water, set it on a post, and took a swing with the machete. I went about 1/2 steam because I really didn't want anything bad to happen (not having ever done the test before), and when I opened my eyes to survey the damage, the can was cut right in half! I was impressed, although maybe this is an easy test. Looks cool, if nothing else! No change in the edge, either, which I thought would at least be scratched and scraped. Just for comparison purposes, I did the same test with a sharp Himalayan Imports khukuri (15" overall length) and the can was just short of being cut in half. The thinner profile of the Straight-Back was a definite advantage in this test.
Straight Back, sheath, and can.My final day of testing was probably the most interesting and useful. I wanted to go for a mountain bike ride and I had a feeling the trails would be fairly overgrown, so I packed my JANDD water resovoir pack and had perfect space for the machete, too. Being so light I could not detect a weight addition to the small pack, so that is a major plus. As I figured, there was plenty of that weedy stuff to cut, but the real test was a tree that had those greenish-yellow, reticulated, brain-looking fruits on them that people put in pantries to keep spiders away. I don't know what it's called, but the tree branches had overgrown a nice downhill section, so I just had to pare it back. These branches were the real deal, made of wood (as opposed to being "woody") and with a thickness averaging 1/2-3/4". The machete did a great job of hacking through them, which took close to 15 minutes of total chopping time. I had to swing hard and adjust my angle to cut cleanly through the branches, and some required a few swings, but again, I was totally surprised to find that edge in perfect shape, still. It didn't have that razor-edge feel to it, but it still felt plenty sharp, especially for a knife that has seen that much use. If that knife was a "10" in sharpness out of the box, I would say it is now a "9", which is pretty impressive in my book. I also threw the apple-sized, dense and hard fruits into the air and chopped them in half as they were coming back down. This resulted in several minutes of juvenile, destructive pleasure, until I started getting tired of getting sticky juice all over the place!
Here is another shot of the machete after a lot of use. Note all the cobwebs and juice and plant guts all over it. It cleaned up really nicely afterward.
Evaluation and OpinionRoss Aki's Straight Back Machete features classic lines and finish details which make it as much of a joy to look at as to use. Every aspect of this knife's design shows that it is intended to be a simple, no-nonsense tool. The blade was thin yet very tough, and while the edge was razor-like, it was plenty strong, even on tasks that it is not intended for. The machete is versatile enough to stand alone as a field knife, and the Kydex sheath makes a great addition to the overall package. I found no problems when using it, and the exceptional light weight of the machete makes it a tool that is indispensible to a variety of users, including walkers, hikers, backpackers, paddlers, and cyclists. I can't think of a reason any outdoors person would have to not carry an Aki machete like this one. Also of note is the fact that this machete is of ATS-34 stainless steel. This gives the knife the advantage that it will not rust easily in the field. On the other hand, I was warned by several people that the ATS-34 steel is not suitable for an application like a machete and that the blade would break after an hour's use. I think my testing proved that wrong! I was exceptionally pleased with every detail of Ross' interpretation of this classic tool, both aesthetically and functionally. The fact that the knife can be tempered at home adds even more to Mr. Aki's attitude toward knives, primarily that they are meant to be used, not ogled! I loved the light weight (easy on the body) and the cord-wrapped handle, which was very comfortable to use for long periods of time, not to mention how functional it is to the design purpose of the machete.
The Straight-Back passes Darwin's Seal of Approval!My recommendations for change would be to extend the cord on the handle enough so it could be used as a lanyard. When swinging full bore into weeds, after a while you start to fatigue and letting go of the machete accidentally is a very real possibility. A lanyard hole may be a solution, too, although the 1/16" stock may be too thin and might abrade through a cord lanyard too quickly (?). My other suggestion would be to hold the sheath together with screws to allow a belt loop to be added, or to open the sheath for cleaning. Upon use, though, I found the sheath cleans rather well just by running water through it. Scrubbing wouldn't be possible if needed, though. Also, if someone sent me this sheath to add a belt loop I could easily do so, so it is a possibility from an aftermarket source. Finally, I would drill some holes between the rivets in place so I could lash the sheath to equipment, but again, this is easily done at home and there is plenty of a border on the edge to allow one to do this. Overall, Ross Aki can be congratulated on this machete, which is utterly unique in its execution. I would have no problem recommending these machetes with 100% confidence to any user who understands their proper use, and I will carry this one in the field with me everywhere I go! I think you will find all of Ross' knives and machetes follow this same principle of form and function united in perfect balance. He's found a customer in me! ;-) With his permission I'd like to keep the machete and keep using it, hopefully to a point where I think it needs to be stress-relieved through a retempering process. if so, i will update this review when the time comes, but for now you simply cannot buy a better machete from any source that I know of.