We visited a family member in Alfonso, Cavite, in the Philippines. Her home has a small garden in the back filled with various fruit trees and she insisted we take some fruit with us. Part of what caught my eye was the machete being used. That you can see above.
I turned out that her husband enjoyed making knives before he passed away. He shaped the steel, made the handles and the wood sheaths. I wish I could have taked to him.
The handle was about 8″ long and the blade is about 12″ long. This side of the handle still has the ferrule to keep the wood from splitting. The blade does have a sickel shape and the cutting edge was facing me (downwards in this photo). Any steel surface wants to rust in the Philippes. It’s due to humidity and salt in the air.On this side, the ferrule is gone. The handle didn’t have a forward taper but he did have a slight bulge at the front to help with gripping the blade and not sliding forward onto the blade.The handle had cracked and been glued at some point. The blade thickness is a tad under an 1/8th inch.
That is the knife they use for everyday tasks. When they heard I am interested in knives and used to make them, they brought out two the husband made that they keep indoors.
This knife immediately caught my eye.He ahd braided string to make a neck strap when climing trees and the overall color was very nice. It would fully seat in the sheath – I didn’t realize it was partly out when I was snapping photos.The handle was about 6″ and he would taper the handle down slightly as he went forward. This knife was in much better shape than the first and you can just see the silver ferrule where the handle transitions to the blade.My best guess is that he differentially tempered the blade by first tempering the blade and then pouring hot water on the edge. The greyish discoloring is the telltale sign. It’s not consistent but clearly it has held up over time. The blade shows marks from plenty of sharpening.This blade is right arond an 1/8th inch or maybe a tad thicker. The handle had cracked a bit.His work on the sheaths was exemplery. He cut the two halves, carved the channel he needed to hold the blade, glued and then clamped them together. I wish I had a good photo of the side – you have to really look for the seam where the two haves come together to find it.
This third knife, I didn’t think we’d get to see it. The blade had rusted into the sheath. My older relative went into her house and came back with it separated. She’d used a small hammer to tap it out – she’s in her 70s and knows how to fix things “old school”. She wanted me to be able to see it.
I’m glad we could see this one, The handle is about 6″ long and the blade is about 8-9″. He had clearly upped his game both in terms of the handle and the sheath. The blade had a bit of a recurve grind also. My guess is that someone else made the ad hoc sling.. Odds are they put it away wet too and it rusted.This side of the blade did show some forging marks. I did recommend to the relative to brush off the rust as best she could and apply a little bit of oil to preserve the blade. We weren’t there long enough or I would have done it.This bade was also about an 1/8th inch thick. Note the slight crack in the handle. The ferrule is still there.
Summary
We were only able to stay for about an hour and really appreciated their sharing the blades with me. I truly wish I could have met their maker but in many respects he lives on with them and his family.
If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.
