Condor Tool & Knife Survival Machete with Walnut Handle

I finally got a chance to use my new Golok. Great tool. Cuts small brush/limbs, weeds and vines. Bulbous handle makes you feel secure swinging this and for most use blade speed is your best friend. A major plus for this is the cost of the machete. You can find cheaper machetes out there, but this is thick enough to be a serious tool. The blade steel is of a quality that likewise is befitting a serious tool. As a user, you want a tool that is constructed of a hard enough material that it stays sharp, but tough enough to not break. A similar tradeoff on costs. Buy a quality tool, but not one that costs so much you won't use it. This Condor hits that sweet spot for me. (I give that advice especially for myself!) I love my quality Spyderco knives but often reach for a cheapie when I'm going to do "real" work. My first day's use included some sprout trimming. For that, I want to cut close to the ground. I'm not going to use my Cold Steel Gurkha Kukri with Kraton Handle that way for doing everyday chores! Yep, I hit the dirt, even some rocks. All in a day's work for this. Just like I'd use a hoe or shovel. I'll nick the blade. It sharpens easily enough. There is some concern for how narrow this blade is down near the handle. Condor has done a nice job of tapering the blade thickness. I measured the width of the blade, estimating the center of the sharpened bevel back to the spine. Nearest the handle my Golok is 1 inch wide and 0.24 inches thick. Out near the tip, I got 1.75 wide and 0.115 thick. My point was to try and figure the weight distribution by calculating the cross sectional area of the blade at a couple of points. (Near midpoint of blade, the figures are 1.38" by 0.165") Calculated cross sectional areas were, starting nearest handle were 0.23 in^2, 0.23 in^2 and 0.20 in^2. Again you face compromise. Heavier near the tip gives greater cutting power. But a thinner blade cuts more easily. What I found is the blade is actually heavier back near the handle, but not by much. The greater thickness helps avoid bending blade, of course. Oh, yes, I spray my Golok with WD 40 or whatever is handy. It'll get rusty soon enough, but it's still new, so I want to delay my neglect for until next time. I like this tool!

My Golok just arrived via UPS and all I can say is wow. I purchased a piece of property early this year that has very dense undergrowth consisting largely of briars and small saplings. I knew I was going to need a bush knife of some sort so I went the cheap route and picked up your basic $10 off the shelf machete from a local big box store. Big mistake. The thing was flimsy, dull and wouldn't cut wet paper. I couldn't even begin to beat my way through the underbrush. Being the person I am I started researching and ended up deciding on the Golok style bush knife. This style is highly regarded in the survivalist community for it's ruggedness and versatility. From clearing brush to chopping down small trees to batoning wood, this knife will handle all with ease. Once I started trying to decide on the actual knife to purchase the Condor really caught my attention. I'm a bit of a knife junkie anyway so seeing that this was carbon steel I immediately knew that this would be able to take and hold an edge. The hardwood handle looked to be top quality as did the leather sheath so the decision to purchase this was easy. The knife arrived from BUDK Catalog three business days after placing my order so no disappointments there. It was nicely packaged with the blade wrapped in parchment and the entire knife in a plastic bag. One thing I expected was for the blade to be liberally oiled being carbon steel but it wasn't. Considering the black finish on either side of the blade leaving only the edge and spine exposed I suppose it's not a big deal. Everything was clean and shiny so I won't fault them for that. The blade itself arrived honed to a razor edge. Being 1/4" thick at the handle you would expect this to be pretty heavy, and while it does have a heft to it does't feel cumbersome. The bulbous handle adds some counterweight to the blade and overall it's pretty well balanced with the point of balance being 2 3/4" from the end of the handle. Not bad for a 14 1/4" blade, which is what mine measured. Since these are made by hand expect some variance in blade length. My initial impression is that they put just as much quality and attention to detail in the sheath as they did the knife. It's made using leather that's slightly over 1/8"thick and riveted in the corners. The belt loop pivots and the rivet is covered internally to prevent it from scratching the blade. Typically I'm a "buy it once" kind of guy and and will gladly pay a little more for quality. My first impression of this knife is that this will be with me for years to come and maybe even end up in the hands of a grandchild one day. The proof is in the pudding though so I still need to take out and abuse it. I'll add to my review once I've had that chance.

I've been swinging machetes for around 25 years now. I've been through various brands. Some of them I've given up on and others just didn't hold up through the years. This is by far the best I have ever owned. This machete arrived brand new and in retail packaging. It was boxed up and packaged very well. The machete was wrapped in plastic and not even inserted in the sheath. The sheath is separately wrapped in plastic and everything was inside the factory box. I've heard and read so many good things about Condor machetes. After deciding on this Golok for it's size and shape, I found that what everyone is saying is absolutely true. This will be the last machete I will be needing in this size. If I ever do get another machete it will be another Condor, and only because I might want one of their larger sizes. The machete is sharp right out of the box. It is a good size for throwing in a backpack or clearing limbs out of a trail. I have been using it a lot in both of those scenarios. The handle is still very firmly attached to the blade. No loose handle like you would find with cheaper machetes. The blade is thick and solid. You aren't going to shake the blade and make that metal warbling sound that you can with cheap machetes. I like the design of the handle. The curved design with the bigger and thicker end keeps the machete in place in my hand throughout use. It is very comfortable to hold and use throughout the day. My hand is not fatigued after an extended period of use. The leather sheath is the best I have ever seen. It is so well constructed. This is definitely worth every penny. I can't stand the cheap nylon sheath that you typically get with a machete. This leather sheath gets used a lot. It's either protecting the blade from cutting stuff in my backpack or allowing me to carry on my side. I don't put the sheath on my side if I'm going to be doing a lot of sitting, it does swivel and allow you to sit, but for me it is mostly when I'm going to be out in the woods. One day I left the machete in the floorboard of my car overnight and into the next day. We had a very cold night and a hot day. The temperature fluctuation caused moisture to build up on the metal and retain in the leather sheath. When I pulled the machete out it had a little bit of rust at the edge of the blade. A little sanding and the rust is gone. This was my fault. I'm not used to the leather and metal combination . I won't be leaving it in a place where the temperature will fluctuate rapidly. My car may have had a little moisture in the floorboard as well. I'm not an expert at sharpening things. This edge is one of the easiest edges to work with for me. I have a puck with some honing oil that I use on all yard equipment. I've been using the puck on this machete and can keep it very sharp. Like I said, I'm no expert and can still keep a good edge on it. If you are reading this without an edit then the machete is still working fine and everything is holding up well. If anything changes I will update this review. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

I am no knife expert. I bought this because my husband came home with 2 green coconuts (straight off the palm), and having seen people chop into these with smaller machetes to get the brown nut in the center, I figured that's what I needed, and this shape seemed ideal. Besides, maybe I could also use it to remove small limbs off my overgrown small trees without resorting to a saw. When this knife arrived, it appeared pretty sharp already. So the first thing I did was try to hack into a coconut. Despite being top heavy, which should have bit deeper, it barely bit into the coconut. That is, roughly 1/2" deep, chopping vertically with the grain!! Now I don't have any experience lopping heads off of coconuts, but youtube is loaded with video of smaller men and women hacking coconuts and it sure didn't look this hard. So I tried to sharpen it like a kitchen knife. I do have big whetstones for them, but after quite a bit of work, I still couldn't get the blade sharp enough to cut into much of the coconut. I had more success hitting the coconut with a hammer. I'm going to chalk this up to lack of experience sharpening a large knife and zero experience cutting coconuts, even tho they sure make it look easy on youtube. After smashing the coconut like my life depended on it, I manage to mangle the coconut beyond any hope of edibility (but still very large chunks) over the course of 10-15 minutes of sweaty hard angry smashing with this blade, sharpened, using a 2 handed grip and long overhead swings. This left me wondering how humans survived in areas with coconuts as a primary diet, but that's another discussion. The blade is large and there's LOTS of steel. The steel rusts very easily. You must clean/oil/wax it immediately after use or it's going to pit. I found this out immediately, after leaving it outside on the porch for less than a day after getting mad at the coconut the first time. Construction is HEAVY. I have long fingers for a woman, an 8" spread from thumbtip to fingertips, and this Pack Golok is right at the limit of comfortable grip for me, if not a bit large. However, I can JUST barely grip it 2 handed (palm width 3"), which is great. The handle wood. I'm pretty familiar with rare woods... and this appears to be a bloodwood handle. I have several bloodwood pieces, and this is identical in grain, though the color isn't as deeply red as my pieces. It's a nice wood, whether it's blood wood or not. And of course, the tang runs full length up, which is a great construction. The sheath... well, everyone talks about the sheath, so you already know that it's a great sheath. The blade does not easily slide into or out of the sheath, but I figure it will eventually, if the leather absorbs all the oil you need to put on it to keep from rusting. The sheath is almost worth the price of the knife, which says a lot. It appears to be full grain leather, and is sewn like an old saddle. Wowow. The knife is HEAVY. I mean REALLY heavy. Of course, you can look at the weight in the description, but til you are swinging it, you simply don't realize how heavy it actually is. It's about like swinging a big hammer, but with a different (more awkward) balance and larger grip. This should give incredible leverage in a swing, but my coconut experiment tells me it doesn't. I have seen several reviewers mention resharpening, and that's my next project to figure out. How to get this working. The beauty of it being so heavy is that you have LOTS and LOTS of steel for margin of error. That said, I really didn't want a knife I had to figure out how to remake to cut some coconuts. But all my personal issues aside... is this a good deal? Oh heck yes. While today's $80 price is quite a bit higher than some other reviewer's much cheaper prices, prices for everything have gone up insanely in the last 3 years. So even paying 2x what it cost a mere 3 years ago, it's still worth it, even if you have to put some time and effort sharpening and shaping closer to what you want. Would I buy this again? Absolutely. Despite my coconut issues, this is a beautiful big knife. Hope this helps!

UPDATE (OCT 2015): So I've been using this machete for over 3 years and I'm even more convinced now just how outstanding Condor's products are. I own a couple of Condor knives but this one I've owned the longest and put it through the most abuse. Everything from splitting bullets to killing Rattlesnakes to chopping down one-foot thick trees, just to see how the machete would perform. And yes, I know there are more effective tools out there to chop down a tree but I wanted a challenge. However it turned out to be not much of a challenge after all. Overall I used the machete at least once a week in the great Pacific Northwest wilderness for the past three years and I have never been let down by Condor's superior reliability and design of this machete. As far as the sheath goes, It's very nice with thick leather and a premium feel to it. And the part that attaches to the belt swivels freely from the rest of the sheath which is nice for when you're moving around with the machete on your side. But all it took to break it was forgetting a couple of times that it was on my side while getting in my car. At first the hinge got a bit loose until it finally broke off. I contacted Condor about this and without hesitation they simply sent me a brand new sheath to replace the one with the broken hinge. This is awesome customer service and a company that truly stands behind its products. My original 5 star review remains 5 stars. I highly recommend this to anybody looking for a robust and high quality machete for doing actual work with and not just to look nice. ORIGINAL REVIEW (AUG 2012): I bought this machete in the spring after the handle in my cold steel latin machete broke. The golok feels very good in my hand and the bulb on the handle is very functional and keeps the large knife from slipping from my grasp. The steel is very high quality and is very thick compared to the cold steel latin machete. It chops like a boss; the thickest log I chopped with it was an 11 inch pine and the blade was still able to shave the surface of my finger nail.... (stayed very sharp). Overall I put it through a lot of use and abuse and it is holding up. I take it with me on every mountain and hike and I got used to the weight of it. May I add that you do have to take care of the blade because it rusts if it gets wet. It happened to me after a trip to camp muir(10,200 ft.) at Mt. Rainier and the knife got soaked from me glissading down the snow field, a day after which the edge of the blade got a thin layer of rust. But it wasn't anything 5 minutes of polishing couldn't fix. Overall buy this machete if you want it. You will realize how much more you should have wanted it after you use it.

This is a nice versatile camp/utility blade. The blade as others have described is 11 inches long with an overall length of 17 inches. It feels good in your hand and has a nice heft to it which becomes useful when chopping some medium sized branches. I got this as a Christmas gift in 2016 and decided to chop some branches that were too close to the house. The branches were about 4 inches round but this blade brought them down in no time. It took about 12 good swings cutting the branch in a V pattern before the branch came down on its own weight. I cut the branch into some manageable pieces and then proceeded to baton the thickest log with the blade. The blade ripped the little log quickly and efficiently. The thickest part on the spine of the blade closest to the tang is about 1/4 inch tapering off to about an 1/8 inch toward the tip of the blade. I thought this blade would work great at a camp ground or out on a trail. The blade comes with a leather sheath with a belt loop riveted on as well as two snaps to keep the blade secure. As I was using it, I only kept the snap closest to the tang closed and left the middle snap loose for quicker access. I wish it came with a leather wrist loop since it does have a hole on the butt of the tang for a loop. Overall I am very happy with this gift, its a great blade with good sharp edge out of the box. I can't wait to use it on the camp ground, hope this review helps you in your decision. Thanks!

Excellent chopper! This compact machete will out chop my SP53 with ease. Don't let its compact size fool you into thinking it can't do its job. It can, in fact, chop better than many hatchets. It is very sturdy and does a great job at what it was designed to do. I couldn't be more pleased with the quality and utility of this machete. It fits the hand well and its heavy blade bites very deep on each swing. If you're looking for a machete for cutting through grass or small vines, this isn't the one for you. This blade is meant for heavy duty wood processing. The sheath is made of thick leather and appears to be well sewn and quite sturdy. The belt loop is attached so that it can swivel while you walk. The only negative that I have found with the sheath is that, due to the shape of the blade and the necessary position of the retention snaps, it makes it more or less impossible to lash another knife to the sheath. That is only a minor issue, since I am often accused of being "over knifed" anyway, since I often will have at least six or seven different knives, for different tasks, with me when I'm in the woods. This blade deserves a spot in any serious bushcraft kit. If you are looking for a compact blade that can help you quickly clear a camp site, cut wood for a shelter or blind, remove low limbs or cut wood into shorter lengths for a fire, I don't think this machete will disappoint you. I'm not easily impressed, but this thing is impressive.

First of all, the machete itself - a beautiful item; it looks very impressive (the images don't do it justice!), has a good, sturdy weight, feels overall solid, and is nice and sharp. Just a quality build all around. Secondly, I must praise Condor for their wonderful customer service. My sheath had a large rip/tear on it out the box (not the company's fault; the shipping box wasn't adequate). When I contacted Amazon customer support they wanted me to send the entire product back, machete and all, even though there was nothing wrong with that part. It was either a full replacement or a refund. I know this is standard practice. I contacted Condor to explain and see if they could help, and after sending them a photo of the problem, they actually shipped a new sheath out to me, completely out of their own pocket/expense. It arrived today, completely intact! They didn't have to do this, and is the sign of a strong, decent company. Very surprised and delighted, and they will now have a repeat customer. Even though it seems counter-intuitive, considering you're reading this on Amazon, I'd actually recommend you buy directly from Condor (and no, I'm not shilling for them!); you then have far better support and don't have to rely on a good heart to help. Back to the machete... As said, a high quality product that will last for years.