CondorTool & Knife Bushcraft Parang Machete Knife - Heavy Duty Machete with Sheath - 1075 High Carbon Steel - High Impact Polypropylene Handle - Ballistic Nylon Sheath - 13in Blade - 22.9oz

I never expected to be as happy with this tool as I was. It came fairly sharp out of the box with its tall height convex type grind. Because I sharpen with stones and not belts I don't really care for this type of grind so I simply made a few passes at about a 25 degree angle each side and this baby became downright sharp for this type of tool. My testing consisted of hacking at free standing briars, vines, and saplings. I like to test on these free standing items because they have a tendency to crush and break if the tool is not sharp enough to cleanly slice them and have them fall to the ground. It performed this task just fine with the 5 minute touch up I performed to the blade. In all honesty, if your primary use would be wood chopping I feel the blade was fine as it arrived...at least on my example.Next test was chopping small diameter trees. No problems here with this sharp tool being comfortable and having ample forward heft to cleanly remove large chunks of wood while chopping. Since no tool is great at everything, I found this to be very useful for someone who needs a medium reach blade that can serve as both a sharp machete and is still heavy enough to be a formidable chopper.The only complaint I could find was that the handle material is a little slick. I have seem a few reviews where they have been wrapped with some type of grip tape, or the user may wish to wear gloves that provide a more secure grip. Fortunately this handle does have a swell at the front and back end of the handle which helps to prevent it from sliding any further in the hand. There is also a brass lined hole for a lanyard which is never a bad idea when vigorously swinging these tools for obvious safety reasons. The reason I did not remove any stars for this minor nuance is because I was so happy with the way the tool performs I was able to overlook that small flaw. I would be against paying much more than I did which was 48.86 as I see these have been cheaper in the past. But you know the old law of supply and demand, and these seem to be gaining a good following with positive reviews. That will in turn drive the price up. The sheath seems to be of sufficient quality to hold up to a fair amount of use. It is made of thick cordura nylon with 4 rivets down the blade side of the sheath. It also has to hollow rivet leg strap holes at the bottom which came with a decent length piece of black paracord nicely coiled up the way they should be at the bottom. The belt loop on the sheath is fixed and will accommodate up to a 3 1/4" belt height and has a very sturdy strap that secures around the bottom of the handle with a heavy duty button. I see no problems here especially with some of the crappy sheaths I have received with some very pricey knives. The sheath also has a small button closed pouch on the front for bringing that small extra pocket knife for your detailed work which now makes this an all around very versatile bush crafting package!!! The sheath is set up for belt only carry, but I do not consider this to be as much of an issue as trying to carry a long machete on the hip. I feel the length of this is still reasonable as a belt carried tool.So overall, I was very happy with this tool for the price. I have recently purchased several condor products and I have been very pleased with them at the current price level. I have however noticed that these seem to be consistently going up in price. I do feel these are a good value currently, but they may soon become overpriced for what they are.

Item arrived promptly and as described.I was looking for a new tool to take camping... an axe replacement machete with solid chopping power and functional brush clearing ability. I am actually pretty impressed.I own this knife's larger brother from Condor, the original wooden-handled 22" parang. It's a great chopper and a beast besides, but it's thin above the handle and the balance is a bit unwieldy. In short, it's not what I want for lightweight camping/hiking/overnight kayaking. I've been favoring a Cold Steel kukri, but it does dull a little faster than I like and the textured grip can be hard on your hands if you're doing a lot of work with it. This fits my niche perfectly.Pros- Perfect ratio for me of performance/power/weight. It chops and slashes very well (as a parang, it's better as a chopper than a slasher, but it's a multi-use item) and it is very reasonably weighted -- thick, but not overly so -- and it has great power without being cumbersome. 13" blade length is in the sweet spot.- Spine thickness is nice. It's hefty, but not hard to handle.- Unlike its big brother, it's wider above the handle than the regular parang which makes me feel better about it not snapping there.- Awesome balance. To be this thick and this powerful, it's easy to swing.- Good for fine work near the handle. Makes a functional draw knife.- Sharp out of the box and it will hold its sharpness well and resharpens fairly easily.- Nice fit and finish.- Comfortable grip with a lanyard hole.- Decent cordura nylon sheath.Cons- Handle is a little slick. Some racket tape or a large bit of inner tube over it would make it "grippier."- Grind is odd. It has a curvature to it and it's not the easiest thing to sharpen because of it. I've read that it is a "wide convex grind" which sounds right. Someone in cyberspace said it was a Scandi grind. Not so. Wide convex grinds are hard for those of us with nothing but sharpening rods or stones to work on. I'd prefer a flat grind and may make that modification.- Paint. Or whatever it is. I wish knife makers would keep that crap off my blades.- The sheath... I know I said it was a "pro" and it is... as Cordura nylon sheaths go, it's a good one. But I like the rugged leather ones Condor makes with the swivels better. Still a good sheath. Be careful drawing the blade. You could cut the sheath. Put pressure on the edge with the spine, not the blade, when drawing.

By Marjorie's hubby: Its well built, nice and heavy, comfortable handle and came sharp. Pretty easy to sharpen, good size and made short work of a pile of branches up to 2 in dia that I had to chop up. I've tried softer machetes and the edges ding up too easy. This is a nice length for me. I have an 18 in blade machete that is a bit unwieldily in some situations. I don't have Schwartzeneger forearms either. Yet this is bigger than some other large knives I have and better for brush cutting. I have only had it for a couple months and haven't really put it to work clering a trail - that will have to wait for next summer. So for lack of perspective on long term performance and durability I held back one star. I waited for Amazon to price it right and grabbed it - for the price I'm very pleased. Sheath works but seems a little weird - backwards, still a blade like this should have a guard to protect other stuff from damage and people from injury - nice that a sheath comes with.6-7-14 update. I live in bush Alaska but I'm no machete expert. I still like this knife. I've been cutting firewood with a chain saw and use this to trim small limbs as well as brush. I've dinged the edge on rocks and I'm starting to wish the blade wasn't ground to quite so fine an edge. But it is easy to get back to sharp with a stone, steel or even chainsaw file. I've cut thru 1 inch to nearly 1.5 inch green willow & birch limbs in 1 stroke if I get the angle right. Chopping hard dried spruce limbs can be slower going and I've bent the edge a little on some. Much more controllable for me than a conventional 18 in machete. Love the solid well fitting handle. I like the tip configuration - it doesn't cause me to glance off in strange directions like a conventional machete.