Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Not Tropeworthy
, started by Venatius on May 3rd 2012 at 10:14:50 PM
Green-haired Tesla
You know, lately, I've been hearing quite a bit of nonsense about people insistently calling it a "machete". As in, "it doesn't look like a machete, and it has a wierd name, but it's a machete, so I'm calling it that!" That drives me up the wall. I have two khukris, both forged by nepalese kami (for shockingly cheap!), and both of them, despite being moderate in length, are HEAVY for their size, have very thick spines, and are obviously short. They also have a convex beveled edge, much like the most notable thing I can think of, an axe, which is appropriate because they follow grain while splitting firewood like they're sentient. However, using them to hack through leaves is something I can't see any intelligent person doing. That's what machetes are for: very light, long, thin blades that whack branches out of your way. Whelp, there goes my info dump. I'm posting this in the hopes that we can get a clarifying note or two on the main definition; I'm no good at being concise.
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Well, machetes are straight, widen from the handle, and the cutting edge is swept backwards. I don't see much opportunity for confusion for someone who's familiar with both knives, but someone who's only seen a machete before is understandably going to think "Big F***ing Knife = Machete" and assume it's the same thing. I wouldn't worry about it too much...
I'd try not to, but, you know, I'm a dork. Folks like Cold Steel advertise their "khukri machete" and people buy it without realizing that the item's name is a qualifier (khukri-shaped machete, two millimeters thick at most) rather than a description (This is a khukri, which is a machete.) Knowing where a misconception comes from only makes that itch to shout out, "no, it's really like this!" stronger, I think.
- Emile in Halo Reach uses one of these, typically carried in a sheath on his shoulder plate. The shoulder plate apparently doubles as his sharpner for it.
For some reason this was re-added - it was deleted because we've got it listed already. I only bring it up here because I accidentally hit save before I'd finished writing the edit reason.
Edited by johnnye
By the way, that was a cool photo of the kukri. I haven't quite figured out how to put photos on, so it would be nice if someone put it there.
I have a bad feeling about this page's future.
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