Cold Steel Machete mods

A few days ago i bought a few Cold Steel Bowie Machetes from a Dutch forum member, and today i changed the plastic grip of one of them a bit more to my liking with the use of a coarse wood rasp.
The contouring makes for a much more comfortable grip when compared to the original handle shape, and snap cuts can now be done much easier and without handle shift.
The rough surface structure left by the wood rasp also offers a much more secure grip, but only prolonged use will show if it needs more smoothing.





The factory edges on these South African made versions had some burring left, but that was an easy fix on the Tormek leather wheel.
The edges are slightly convex, and each apex currently fits in the 45 degrees inclusive slot of my Tormek WM200 AngleMaster.
A bit overkill i think, so some thinning will probably follow later.


The rough finish as it currently is would probably work very well when using the Bowie Machete as a pig sticker for hunters and also for home defense, but i still have to find out how it works for (sustained) chopping purposes.
If need be some sanding linen would make a finer surface in no time.
With a measured blade thickness of 2.75 mm the knife is actually quite rigid, certainly not flimsy or wobbly.

This is how the second Bowie Machete looks at the moment, with the fuzzy finish coming out a bit more even compared to the first one.
Obviously the edges still need to be reprofiled & sharpened.

Recently i bought these 2 Cold Steel Heavy Duty machetes as modding projects.
One of them now looks a bit like a slender barong with a swedge (maybe this will be sharpened later on, don't know yet)
The contoured & resurfaced polypropylene handle has a bit of a negative angle to the blade which so far seems to work well, but i haven't chopped wood with it yet.
The convex edge measures around 30 degrees inclusive and is armhair shaving sharp.

The Cold Steel Black Bear machete is something of a crossbreed between a short machete & a bowie knife, and imo because of the untapered fairly thick & rigid blade and the resulting overall weight this model is better suited for chopping branches and smaller trees than light brush or brambles.

These machetes are manufactured for Cold Steel by Lasher Tools in South Africa from very well hardened 1055 carbon steel that is extremely tough.
Not only are they practically indestructible, but once resharpened they will also take & hold an almost unexpected good edge.
Straight from the factory they are however completely blunt or not even apexed, and what "edge" there is is also burnt due to uncooled and sloppy machine sharpening.
It will take some time and elbow grease to put on a good convex edge that will showcase the true quality of these blades, but i have found that to be more than worth it.
The original polypropylene handle on this Black Bear was both too thick and too slick for my taste, so out came the wood rasp again.
The difference in handling & grip after the contouring with the fuzzy finish is literally night and day, and the best part is that you only need one simple handtool to do it.
Very useful piece of equipment with a good price to quality ratio for bushcraft, garden maintenance, and last but not least home defense.

Mods on this one:

- Polypropylene handle contoured and "fuzzy finished"
- Factory edge slightly reprofiled & resharpened to an armhair shaving convex edge (apex now lies between 30 and 35 degrees inclusive)
- Factory swedge slightly reprofiled & resharpened to an armhair shaving convex edge (apex now lies between 35 and 40 degrees inclusive)









Specs:

Overall length: 45,2 cm (17.8 inches)
Blade length: 30,8 cm (12.13 inches)
Blade thickness: 2,89 mm
Steel type: 1055 carbon steel with baked-on anti-rust coating
Handle material: polypropylene plastic
Weight 510 grams
Sheath: Cor-Ex with tip protector

very nice i like it
good mods

What remains of the second Heavy Duty machete after completely reshaping both the blade & the handle, pictured here below a slightly modified kukri machete.



The idea was to combine an only 2.0 mm thick & lightweight machete blade with a modified kukri form which uses a more forward placed & pronounced belly as it's sweet spot, with an aggressively slicing forward curve as a follow-up.
It's in the testing phase and i'm still working on it, but so far it has already proven to be very effective as well very easy on the wrist joints due to it's low weight.
With a 45 degree angled hit at speed the blade will cleanly pass through a wrist size young birch tree/sapling, almost without feeling the impact.
Thinner springy stuff that isn't immediately severed by a direct hit by the belly gets sliced by the forward curve, but most of the time the combination of a high tip speed with that curvy sweet spot is more than enough to do the job.
The current convex edge is done on 400 grit wet & dry SiC paper on a rubber backing using WD-40 oil as a lubricant, and measures ~30 degrees inclusive.
The handle is contoured & fuzzy finished with the woodrasp.

Playing around with crosshatching using a waterproof marker to check on the location & size of the sweet spot as well as the effectiveness of the slicing forward curve after a chopping session.

Before:


After:


Currently busy with giving the forward portion of the blade somewhat of a lenticular cross section to further improve upon pass-through cuts.
So far i'm having a lot of fun for only very little money,

Current specs:

Overall length: 51,2 cm
Blade length: 37,5 cm
Blade thickness: 2.0 mm
Weight: 386,9 grams
Steel type: 1055 carbon steel
Hardness: ~56 HRC
Handle material: polypropylene

I Like Cold Steel, good price, good Quality and i like your mods
~56 HRC thats also good

Thank you,

Still had these 2 pics on my wife's phone.
Most green stuff around this size takes just one swipe at speed.

Recently i modified this Cold Steel Magnum Kukri to better suit the needs of a friend of mine, who bought it for home defense.
This Cold Steel/Lasher product in it's basic form has a very good price to quality ratio (even in this highly taxed country), it is legal to own & use on your own property (the adding of a sharpened swedge makes it illegal to carry and/or use on public streets or land) and with a little work it becomes even more useful for it's intended purpose, which in this case is to lie next to a bed hopefully never being put into use.
If however push comes to shove it will never malfunction, and nobody will blink an eyelid if the item needs to be turned in or disposed of after use.













I put on a new convex edge as well as a convex swedge (apex on both measures +/- 30 degrees inclusive, which is as thin as possible yet thick enough) using only a cheap Chinese 120 grit diamond file, making sure that the microteeth in the edge all point a bit backwards for maximum bite in that direction.
One reason for such a coarse edge is the fact that when being cut with, it hurts noticeably more compared to being cut with a finer edge, and the resulting wound also takes noticeably longer to heal (personal experience)
Both the main edge and the now sharpened swedge can shave the hair on the back of my hand a bit on skin level, which is most likely enough sharpness for it's intended purpose.
Both edges come together in a piercing point which will penetrate much easier than the factory version, yet the back of the blade leaves enough real estate to put your off-hand on to aid in blocking hits with a stick or bat.

The blade length of this particular model especially gives the wielder most likely a distance advantage, which can be very useful if the bad guys use a knife too (many home invaders here do, together with baseball bats): you can reach him, while he can't reach you.
Also gave the handle surface the "fuzzy finish" treatment for maximum grip in the hour of need, even with very sweaty hands.
Lastly i sanded the black coating lightly and then gave the whole blade including both coarse bevels a thorough coating with a good quality car wax (scratches hold the wax better), to help protect the rust prone carbon steel (and it's sharp edges) while it lies unused next to, or under the bed.

Specifications of this specific example:

Overall length: 56,5 cm
Blade length: 43,0 cm
Blade thickness: 2,93 mm (which is quite rigid, certainly not flimsy of wobbly)
Steel type: 1055 carbon steel (not stainless, but extremely tough)
Handle material: moulded on PVC (dampens shock effectively)
Weight without sheath: 546 grams
Weight with sheath: 674 grams

Just came home from a camping & hiking holiday in France, mostly in the Morvan nature reserve, which itself lies in the Burgundy region.
Still not very touristic when compared to the south of France, and especially if you like good quality local food, various wines & beers i would highly recommend this region.
The beef cattle you can see in the background of the pictures are of the Blonde D'Aquitaine breed, which thrives in the area and are a prime source of high quality beef.

The modified machete again came in very handy during our hikes, as some trails were almost grown shut.
It devours brambles, various types of green undergrowth, as well as both thin & thick saplings with just a flick of the wrist.
Thinner trees with a thickness the size of a grown man's upper arm take just a few hits at speed for them to fall over.
Because of the efficient design of the thin blade together with the high tip speed this machete bites very deep, so consequently on thick wood i do have to wiggle the blade free after each hit, but that is to be expected.