Better late than never. Found this picture hiding on my hard drive today & realized I never replied to this thread as intended when the picture was taken.
There are various sizes & styles of machetes available. They range from very expensive custom pieces to affordably priced. The important thing is that they fit your hand, have a good grip, & have a sturdy lanyard.
The larger one shown here I got for $15 on sale about 10 years ago. It has a basic blade shape & is made of good but not especially great steel. It has seen a lot of heavy duty cutting action. Everything from huge cactii being cleared when I built trails for the greenbelt alliance to removing large trees that fell across roads during hurricanes. No special sharpening techniques are needed. I use a file or a grinding wheel. It lives in my trunk because you never know when a road will be blocked.
The smaller one was more expensive & uses a much higher quality steel. They don't make this particular model any more but I think they do have some similar ones. It has a multifunction blade. The serrated edge can do some serious damage fast. The handle is more aggressive & includes a glass breaker. The tip is pointy & the cutting edge is extremely sharp. This one doesn't get used much & is much harder to sharpen. I use a whetstone for that. This is my zombie & backwoods hiking machete & lives in my backpack.
The "trick" to efficient machete use is not to swing it but to flick it. It's all in the wrist. It's all about precise control. Start swinging one of these bad boys around & someone is likely to be hurt. Bad. It will probably be the person swinging it. Always use the lanyard.
