And finally I ran into a suitable blade! At a gun show, some guy was selling knives and machetes of various shapes and sizes, all constructed of 5160 basically like machete in an "asian village blacksmith" style. He said he actually travels to Thailand yearly to order and select these from rural makers who sell most of their blades as working tools to local peasants. A few people I spoke to had only good things to say about the guy and his products.
I chose a machete of about 15" blade length and 5/32" thickness (see attached "before" picture, taken after I knocked off the plain wood handle scales).
The "after" picture shows the blade after major reshaping. A lot of work with my small 1" tabletop belt grinder, and finalizing the shape by manual sanding to 150 grit.
Most obvious changes are in the handle (narrowed down and more "bauernwehr-like" in style, new pin holes and nagel hole drilled); point (gave it a clip point and three decorative copper lined holes at the cusp where the blade is widest), and edge grind (extended the edge down close to the future bolsters, reground all length of blade at more acute angle and then rounded off the ridge to make it look more like typical flat ground bauernwehr).
Feels like most of the blade is of spring hardness, but the edge is much harder (for about 1/4" along the edge). They must have applied some kind of differential heat treatment.
Overall, it feels like it should be a fearsome chopper when completed! And with a useable point, too. Just what I imagine a serious bauernwehr should be.
Lots of work still ahead on this one, and not enough time to spend on the hobby projects...
Alex.
Attachment: 140.06 KBbefore [ Download ]
Attachment: 194.16 KBafter [ Download ]