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
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