[FinnMan]

Hello!

I got Cold Steel 16" Bolo machete 16 eur from ebay and went to test it yesterday. I threw a few chopping blades into my pack and went to the nearby woods.

blades in picture 1 from top:
- Cold Steel 12" barong machete (3 mm thick)
- Cold Steel 16" bolo machete (2 mm thick)
- Hukari 8" chopper Finn-made (6 mm thick)
- Leuku 8" Finn-made (4 mm thick)

All blade are slightly convexed. I was cutting mostly greenwood and all of the blades did quite well. None of them got any damage to the blade. Bolo was a little bit clumsy on finer tasks due it´s 16" length and a bit wobbling due the only 2 mm thick blade, but it bites well in greenwood. Bolo´s tip heavy excels in chopping and brings heft there where it is most needed. Bolo have very fat handle which is a bit uncomfortable to my hand. It´s also made from hard plastic being a bit slippery.
Barong have more solid feel being a bit thicker than bolo and much shorter. Blade cuts really well both dry and greenwood. Handle of Barong is excellent being ergonomical and rubberized allowing very good and secure grip.
Hukari chops like an axe. It´s heavy blade make deep cuts and it have very rugged and solid feel in hand. Hukari´s handle is made from some kind of sticky rubber molded over the tang which is very comfortable and indestructible. Hukari performed bes in splitting with baton due it´s thick wedgelike blade geometry.
Leuku was lightest blade in the test being about half of the weight from others. Leuku didn´t cut as deep as the others but was very fast and precise in chopping allowing 2-3 swings in same time that bolo did one. Birch handle is good for the hand and fits to me like a glove. By beeing lightest it will do whittling and other finer tasks also much better than heavier ones.

Conclusion:
All the blades are good bushcrafting / survival tools, but bolo needs big backpack if you want to carry it concealed like I mostly do. 12" blade will still fit standard 20-30 liter daypack, but now I took 40 liter one because of the bolo. Leuku offers good chopping ability with only a little of weight, but I´m not 100% sure if it will hold long term heavy batoning and chopping being so light. Hukari is very rugged that you can abuse as much as you want and you just cannot break it.

If I carry only one knife it will be a leuku, but normally I carry smaller fixed blade along so any of those will be OK.

 

[bmatt]

Thanks for the post, FinnMan. What steel is used for the bolo?

I reshaped the Roselli leuku handle, and it feels much better now (not as flat). If I could carry just one knife, this would be it.

 

[FinnMan]

All the blades are carbon steel. Cold Steels 1095 carbon and others I don´t know exact what kind of carbon steels those are.

 

[AncientBrit]

I like the leuko and the bolo,very nice.:thumb:

I used to use a bolo in filipino martial arts,now i use my malay knife as i gave my bolo to my nephew who studies the same art.

 

[loki]

cold steel uses 1055 carbon blades on its machetes

 

[FinnMan]

Could be 1055 then. Can any of you tell me what´s the difference between 1095 and 1055?

Others tell me more about your machetes,how you use it? What you found works best in your needs and why?

 

[Ferrari]

Could be 1055 then. Can any of you tell me what´s the difference between 1095 and 1055?

Others tell me more about your machetes,how you use it? What you found works best in your needs and why?

1055 is a medium carbon steel that is designed more for toughness than edge holding. Its carbon content is around .5o% to .55%. It will also flex a lot more making it great for machetes. 1095 however is a much higher carbon steel and is also more brittle. It will hold a fantastic edge but it won't flex or bend like 1055 which makes it better for knives than machetes. I had a machete made out of 1095 by Ontario one time and it shattered on me because it was so brittle and I put too much stress on it. 1055 is much better at taking a lot of heavy abuse. You can throw a Cold Steel Kukri at trees and have it bounce back and it causes no damage to it. If you hit a rock and get a big dent in the blade then just file it down and its good to go again.