I recently got a couple of tramontina machetes, these are brilliant for light bush work and basic shelter building, if I need to cut anything thicker than about 3 inches I revert to an axe but these days I rarely need to build primitive shelters so for the likes of framework for benders or tripods etc I can get away with poles less than 2 inches thick and the machete deals with these admirably.
However there are times when I need something even a little smaller than a machete, and if I don't have my Leuku with me I tend to revert to a modified machete..
I started by marking out the shape of the mod and how much I want to take off the machete
then got to work with a dremel and cutting wheel to cut the machete to shape
the tramontina is quite thin, about 2mm thick so it doesn't take long to cut through
I then finish the edge, sand down the handle and wipe with linseed oil then drill a lanyard hole.
Here you can see the original tramontina bolo with the modified version above, I guess it looks more like a parang now but has nowhere near the thickness that a parang has, it's a cross between the two so I suppose it's a Marang !
It's very light indeed, you can swing it all day and it cuts way above it's weight, the blade now being about 11 inches rather than 14 is now more day-packable too.. and for the price these cost theres no reason not to have 4 or 5 of them !!
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