KA-BAR Kukri review

This is the KA-BAR Kukri machete. I bought one of these from Poor Fish, an E Bay seller. It cost $50 shipping included. I was a bit skeptical at first since the blade is made in Taiwan. However after giving it a full days workout, I am impressed. It came out of the box razor sharp. There was a small section of the blade that felt like it had a bit of a burr so I gave it a lite touch up with a diamond hone and a chrome oxide loaded strop. I was able to chop through some very tough, seasoned western red cedar logs about 6 to 8 " in diameter in less than a minute. It cut through some brush with ease. I did a little drawing with it to remove the bark from a few cedar logs. The knife batons quite well, although its a bit thin at the front on the top false edge and eats the baton up fairly fast. At the end of the day it was still shaving sharp. There is a bit of wear on the Parkerizing at the sweet spot and this is to be expected. I love the comfortable Kraton G polymer handle ergonomics. I was able to work with it for several hours and didn't experience fatigue as with wood or plastic handled big blades. This knife weighs nearly 1 1/2 pounds with the leather/Cordura sheath and measures 17" total, 11 1/2" blade which is 3" at the deepest part. The blade is made of 1085 high carbon steel 5/32" thick. They did a great job on the manufacture and heat treatment of these knives. Typical KA-BAR quality. Though its called a machete, I consider it more of a heavy camp knife and I highly recommend it for shelter construction, firewood gathering, general cutting chores, etc.