Hand-Forged Curved Machete, Jimped Spine

It is machete-shaped and machete-sized, and it is not machete-weight. That distinction is worth having before you order, because it changes what the blade is good at. A true machete has a 12 inch blade at roughly 250 to 400 grams: thin stock, light in the hand, meant to be swung several thousand times in an afternoon clearing soft growth. This one is 930 grams.

What you have instead is a chopper on a machete outline. It will go through seasoned wood, bone and thick stems that would fold a real machete, and it will tire your arm far sooner on light clearing. Neither is better; they are different tools. If sustained brush clearing is the job, ask for the thin build — it is free and it is covered below.

Thumb grip. The short row of cut notches sits just forward of the handle, exactly where your thumb goes when you choke up on a big blade for close work, and it gives the thumb something to bite on instead of a smooth polished spine. It is called jimping, and on a working knife it is the difference between control and hoping.

It matters most when your hands are wet or cold, which on a blade that lives outdoors is much of the time. It is also one of the few pieces of decoration on a knife that is genuinely functional — most spine filework on the market is cut where no thumb will ever reach it, which is worth checking on any seller's photographs. Ours is placed where the hand actually goes.

A choil, and it works with the jimping. It gives you somewhere to put a forefinger so you can grip the knife forward of the guard, which shortens the effective blade and turns a 12 inch chopper into something you can carve and trim with.

That combination — a finger choil below and jimping above — is what lets one blade do two jobs. Held normally with the hand behind the bolster it chops; choked up with a finger in the choil and a thumb on the jimping it does close work. A knife this size without either is a knife that can only do the first.

930 grams, which over a 12 inch blade works out at 77.5 grams per inch. A true machete runs between about 21 and 33 grams per inch, so this is two and a half to three and a half times the stock of the thing it is shaped like. It is also just above the top of the band we use for our own heavy kukris and khukuris, which are deliberately thick chopping tools.

In practice: more work done per stroke and fewer strokes before your arm complains. It bites into hard material a machete would skate off, and it is genuinely tiring on a long session of light clearing. Know which of those you need before you order, because the fix is free and it is the next question.

Yes, at no extra cost, and if brush clearing is what you actually want the blade for, that is the build we would make you. Thinner stock with more distal taper through the forward half takes a great deal of weight out and brings the blade toward genuine machete handling — lighter, faster, far less tiring over a long session.

What you lose is the ability to chop seasoned wood without care, and some margin if the blade is ever levered or twisted in a cut. Tell us what you are cutting and we will tell you which build we would put on the fire. That conversation is more useful than a checkbox, and it costs you nothing but the time it takes to write it in the order note.

The standard build carries a 12 inch blade and a 6 inch handle, 18 inches overall. That is a default rather than a fixed specification — everything we make is forged after the order, so the dimensions are yours to set.

Twelve inches is short for a machete and about right for a chopper, which is consistent with everything else about this blade. If you want machete reach, 16 to 18 inches of blade is the usual range and we would pair that with the thinner build. If you want a camp chopper, this length is already correct.

Two-tone timber scales pinned through the tang, with a polished steel bolster at the blade and a flared steel butt cap. The bolster and cap do the structural work at the two points where a chopping knife is most heavily loaded.

Grip material and colour are both selectable at no extra cost — horn, bone, micarta and leather over timber are all available. On a blade that will be used outdoors, micarta is worth considering: it is indifferent to damp and grips better wet than dry, which timber does not. We will match the sheath to whatever you choose.

Yes, sharpened along the full working edge and ready to use, unless you tell us otherwise. On a blade with a belly this deep, the sweep is where the cutting happens and that is where the edge is finished most carefully.

Unsharpened builds are free for display or for an awkward import. A stage combat build — rebated edge, rounded tip — is also available at the same price, though on a working blade of this shape it is an unusual request.

5160 high-carbon spring steel, which we use across the whole range. The blade is forged to shape, quenched, and then tempered back by hand as a separate operation afterwards. Those two steps are distinct, and on a chopping tool the second matters more than on anything else we make: repeated shock finds an untempered edge immediately and chips it.

5160 is not stainless and is not meant to be. It rusts if left damp — and this is a blade that will get wet — and in exchange it takes and keeps an edge far better than any stainless we could sensibly forge, and it can be brought back with a file in the field rather than needing a workshop.

Forward of the bolster, which is correct for the shape and is most of the reason it cuts the way it does. The blade widens through the sweep so the mass arrives where the edge lands, and the steel butt cap claws a little of it back toward the hand.

We do not publish a single point-of-balance figure, because hand-forged work varies and a number an inch out is worse than none. Ask before dispatch and we will measure the actual knife we are sending you, from the bolster, and send you the figure.

A leather sheath cut to the curve of the blade, stitched in contrasting thread, with two riveted retaining straps and brass studs, and a belt arrangement. Plain leather, no embossing — what you see is the hide.

It is built to this outline rather than to a pattern, which matters on a blade that sweeps this far: a sheath cut for a straight-backed knife will not take one that curves through most of its length. Colour, stitching and carry arrangement are all yours to specify.

Nothing is held in stock. Every blade is forged after the order arrives, which is why the stock thickness, the dimensions, the handle material and the sheath are all free to change — there is no standard version already made. Standard builds dispatch in 2 to 3 business days; genuinely custom work runs 4 to 6 weeks depending on the queue.

It ships sheathed and braced in a rigid carton, by DHL or FedEx with tracking, typically 7 to 14 business days from Kathmandu. Import duty and local taxes are the buyer's responsibility and vary by country.