Fighting Machetes

This will probably come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog, but in my opinion you can never have too many weapons. You might not get the chance to use them all but its better to have them there than not. Lets have it right, a machete isn’t a gardening tool, hunting knife, butchers knife, or razor to shave your Mrs’ legs with —  granted, you could do all those things with a machete, but what it’s really for is hacking body parts off people you don’t much care for. I’ve got ten of the things, and trust me, I didn’t buy any of them to go camping in the Amazon with.

Fox Machio

My cheapest machete is a Tramontina, with an 18″ carbon steel blade and wooden handle, which is about $15, and my most expensive is a Fox Machio Machete, with a 14.2″ 425 Stainless Steel blade and ABS handle, which costs $86. The Fox Machio is made out of a better steel, which isn’t that important in a machete because they could both lop off a head easy enough, but the Fox Machio would feel better in your hand when you did it because it’s got a nicer handle and better balance. But you don’t need to spend $86 to get a decent machete.

I’ve got the 21″ and 24″ blade Cold Steel Latin Machetes, which are both 2mm (0.08″) thick and made out of 1055 Carbon Steel with a black anti-rust matte coating, which is fine for a machete, especially as they both only cost $18 each. They also have decent polypropylene handles. Although they’re Latin machetes they’re actually made in South Africa and personally sharpened by Nelson Mandela (alright, I made up that last bit). Cold Steel also make Bolo, Panga, Kukri and a heavy machetes, but their best fighting design is their Latin machetes. You can buy sheaths for them for $8 if you want, but I’m a Catholic and the Pope doesn’t like sheaths.

I also have six Condor machetes. The Condor Tool & Knives Company is a great firm from El Salvador. No surprise that a firm from El Salvador makes good fighting machetes. They’re a seriously good firm that have some brilliant designs. The quality are their knives and machetes are pretty good as well and they’re also cheap, which is always a bonus. As well as the machetes I’ve also got the Condor Bush knife, Rodan knife, Borneo Headhunter Pipe knife and Bush Cutlass – love them all.

El Salvador Machete

Condor have range of carbon steel and range of stainless steel machetes. The only Condor carbon steel machete I have is the 18″ El Salvador Machete, which is a lot like the Cold Steel latin machetes in quality and design. The blade is coated in epoxy black powder, it has a polypropylene handle and costs $25.  The rest of my Condor machetes are made out of 420 HC Stainless Steel, which isn’t much different from the 425 Stainless Steel that my Fox Machio is made of.

Condor Combat Machete

The Condor Combat Machete has only got a 13″  blade but it’s 3mm (1/8″) thick, double-edged and spear pointed. It’s also got a really comfortable Ergonomic “PoszeGrip” Santoprene handle. I’ve got it in the Mystic Camo but you can get it in blasted satin or black . It costs $65 and comes with a sheath.

Condor Outback Machete

My biggest Condor machete is the 20″ Outback machete. It’s 2 mm (0.08″) thick like the Cold Steel Latin machetes. Black coating, comes with a sheath and has a high impact polypropylene handle. It’s $75 which is pricey for a machete but this is made out of 420 HC Stainless Steel, so it’s more durable and will last you longer. That said, the Cold Steel machete could still take a head off.

Condor Jungle Saber Machete

Condor Hog Sticker Machete

I’ve also got two Condor machetes with knuckle guards: the 18″ Jungle Saber and 18″ Hog Sticker. My Jungle Saber in Mystic Cammo and Hog Sticker in black. Again, both 2 mm (0.08″) thick and have high impact polypropylene knuckle guard handles. They both cost $70 and come with sheaths. The knuckle guard is a good feature for combat because it offers hand protection and doubles up as a knuckle duster, which is still a valid sabre fencing technique.

Condor Puerto Rican Machete

Lastly, my favourite Condor machete, the 14 1/2″ Puerto Rican machete, 2 mm (0.08″) thick with a hardwood handle and comes with a sheath and black blade. It also costs $70. The reason I like this the best is that it’s similar to the Italian roncola, I can use the curved top edge for hooking and slicing the opponents limbs.

Fox Predator I Knife

Some of the best knives in the world are made at Via Cristans, 1 33085 Maniago, in the Province of Pordenone of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, in the North East of Italy, by a company called Euro Knives Italia S.r.l., which was  is a subsidiary of the world renowned FOX Coltellerie, established by Oreste Frati in 1977. Euro Knives Italia was founded in 2008 to not only produce Fox knives but to produce knives for other manufacturers and build custom knives. The Spyderco Volpe — which means fox in Italian — was made there, hence the name. They also make knives for Mil-Tac and SOG among others.

But when it comes to fixed blade military knives, there is only one Italian company that you think of — Extrema Ratio — who were set up in 1997 and have earned a reputation  for producing the best combat knives in the world. Nearly every Italian special force and anti-terrorist unit has their own model of Extrema Ratio knife, and the Italian military have the best knives in NATO. Extrema Ratio also make knives for other countries special force units, and they’re privately purchased by soldiers all over the world, which is why they cost so bloody much. The highly regarded ER Fulcrum cost $437.

Fox Predator I

The reason I’m mentioning this — no I didn’t forget what knife I was reviewing — is because the Fox Predator I is a very similar knife of equal quality that only costs $210. The ER Fulcrum, which is also a modern tanto blade, made out of N690Co has a 180 mm (7 1/8″) long and 6,3 mm (1/4″) thick blade, whereas the blade on the Fox Predator I is 180 mm (7 1/8″) long and 6 mm (0.23″) thick. The 0.3mm ain’t going to make that much of a difference when you’re sticking it in someone.

Now some people might think that’s a still a lot to shell out on a combat knife. But $210 really ain’t a lot to pay for a combat knife made by FKMD (Fox Knives Military Division) with a 180 mm long and 6 mm N690Co (HRC 58-60) blade and Forprene handle. Cobalt vanadium stainless steel N690Co is made by Böhler, an Austrian steel manufacturer, who probably produce the best quality rolled sheets and plates in the world. This is a new steel and it’s more widely available in Italy and Germany than it is in the USA, which is why it’s not often used by American knife manufacturers, but it’s a better steel for combat knives than ATS 34, 440C, VG-1, VG-10, 154CM, AUS -10 or S30V.  It doesn’t retain an edge quite as well as S30V but it’s just as resistant to corrosion, even tougher, takes a finer edge and is a hell of a lot easier to sharpen. The Brigada de Operaciones Especiales “Lautaro” (Chilean Special forces) knew what they were doing when they chose this as their official combat knife.

Italian Mod 1939 Dagger

The Italian Model 1939 Dagger is without a doubt the best combat knife of WWII, and is still being issued to Italian special forces. The current version, the Extrema Ratio 39-09, uses the exact specs of the original Mod 1939 paratrooper assault dagger, using modern materials and was commissioned by C.O.F.S (Italian Joint Special Operations Command). In my opinion it’s still the best combat knife in issue. I’ve already done a post on the Extrema Ratio 39-09 but this post is about the Mod 1939.

The Mod. 1939 paratrooper assault dagger, manufactured by Scuotto of Napoli, was also issued to the MVSN (Blackshirts) in the North Africa campaign, the only difference being the MVSN model had their insignia on the scabbard.

Mod 1939 Paratrooper Dagger

MSVN Mod 1939

The dagger proved itself throughout the war but was famously used by the 500 strong  285° Battaglione Folgore — survivors of El Alamein – serving under Capitano Alpino Lombardini fighting in Southern Tunisia along the Mareth Line, where they fought in Operation Capri, The Battle of Gabes, The Battle Of Mareth and The battle of Wadi Akarit. During several of these battles, out of ammunition and they fought on heroically and with some considerable success with their Mod. 1939 paratrooper assault daggers. Only 50 of the 500 survived.

But this isn’t the only Mod 1939, which often leads to some confusion, because the Italian army Mod 1939 has a different handle to the version issued to the Folgore (Italian paratroopers).

Mod 1939

To make things even more confusing this model was also issued to the MVSN. This version is also still in production, although you wouldn’t know it because Fox don’t mention that their Fox Military Mod. 604 is a replica Mod 1939 but clearly it is.

Fox Military

It comes with a leather sheath, the blade forged stainless steel and the handle is Micarta. The blade is 170mm, which is shorter than the paratrooper version, but this is an awesome combat knife and it’s affordable. The Fox Military retails at only €95, whereas the Extrema Ratio 39-09 retails at a liberty-taking €412.

Fox Delta Special Ops Col Moschin

In my opinion,  the best tactical folders on the market are produced by FKMD a subdivision of the famous Italian knife manufacturer Fox Cutlery, which is renowned for producing high quality knives. Fox is based in Maniago, the heart of Italian knife making. Other famous Maniago knife manufacturers, include AGA Campolin, Falcon, Fantoni, Frank Beltrame, Lionsteel, Maserin, Olivetto, and Viper, all of which produce very high quality functional knives.

A tactical folder is a fighting knife intended to be used offensively or defensively within a close contact space. The closer you are, the less time and space you have to react. A tactical folder obviously needs to be drawn and opened quickly with one hand, but it also needs a sharp, strong blade, designed for both thrusting and cutting, and needs to be small enough to be effective in a close contact space. It’s no good having a tactical folder over 120 mm because it would be too big to be manoeuvrable in that sort of space. But lets be absolutely clear what a tactical folder isn’t because a lot of people don’t get it: a tactical folder isn’t a combat knife, back-up knife, survival knife or duelling knife.

Two of  my favourites are the Fox Delta Special Ops Col Moschin I & II.

They’ve both got the Col Moschin logo on it and look a treat, so you could just keep it as a collectables but these are functional liner lock tactical folders. The G10 handles are perfectly ergonomically designed. The blades are N690Co Stainless Steel (58HRC), with a G-10 handle, and they use the Emerson Wave System, which means they opens faster than a switchblade. They have skull crusher at the base, which does have a combat use.

I slightly favour the smaller version — the Fox Delta Special Ops Col Moschin II — over it’s bigger brother. It’s a 197mm, with a 87mm long and 4mm thick blade, whereas the Fox Delta Special Ops Col Moschin I is 254 mm with a 107 mm long and 5mm thick blade. The reason that I rate them so highly is ergonomic handle, intuitive feel, fasting deploying, easily manoeuvrable and very sturdy blade made for stabbing.