Re: Machete of choice?
Cold Steel makes a wide variety of quality machetes for a great price. Bolo or parang style machetes are nice for most uses here in the Norhern US. In a lot of instances, a machete goes with me to the field instead of a camp axe.
I find a stout, shorter design nice for cutting/clearing wood, creating notches for shelter construction, slashing through brush and general utility use. A short blade is easier to carry/manuever with, and typically will have a more rigid feel when chopping. This also helps keep the blade from hanging up in the wood.
If you can, avoid the traditional styles offered in most sporting good stores; they are typically too long, flimsy, poor steel and will not hold up to prolonged abuse. Even the SOG and Gerber series that you can find locally feel cheap to me. I was especially dissappointed in the Gerber Gator machete (short version). My buddy brought one hunting and it barely held up to basic camp tasks. The blade was beat to hell by the time we finished collecting firewood. It looked way better than it performed, by far.
I can't comment on the Bear Grylls/Gerber models yet, but the parang might be descent for the price.
