Monday, August 1, 2011

The Condor Tool & Knife Golok

This is the Condor Tool & Knife companies "Golok". Condor T & K is a subsidiary of Imacasa Company founded by some cutlery folks from Solingen, Germany in El Salvador. Theres a long history of machete manufacture with Imacasa. I have an early model regular jungle machete that I've owned for years and there are no complaints or problems with it. OAL of the full tang Golok is 20 1/2 inches and the blade length from tip to hilt is 14 3/8 inches. Its 1/4 inch thick from the handle to 1/8 inch at the tip of the blade. The blade is made from 1075 high carbon steel. The knife weighs 1 1/2 ponds and has excellent balance. The handle is solid walnut and the ball shaped butt keeps it in your hand with little chance of slipping. Its called a machete but its more of a big knife. The Golok design is from southeast Asia:Malaya, Indonesia, Philippine Islands, etc. and is a time proven style of cutting tool. Famous BBC TV survival show producer, Ray Mears, favors this tool when he is in the area and from the way he puts it to work its a do it all kind of blade. This is the newest production from Condor. The older version was a bit rough and the tang went only about 3/4 way through to the end of the handle. I like the fact that Condor listens to their customers and improves their tools. That to me is the sign of a good company to do business with. Here's a series of photos. I'll post more as soon as I get a chance to give this blade a work out. Tomorrow I will build it a sheath.


























4 comments:

  1. That is a very nice piece. I had not run a crossed Condor Tool & Knife before. I will be ordering a parang shortly.

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  2. Condor has improved their QC and are making very sturdy tools. I like the Parang, too. I think you'll be glad you bought one.

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  3. Nice review Ron. Any experience with the Condor Thai Enep Knife?

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  4. This comment came from Karl in South Africa:
    Hi Ron,

    I tried posting on your blog, unfortunately my posting was rejected...(I live in South Africa, so who knows...?).

    I liked your Condor Golok review and was wondering if you had come across the Condor Thai Enep Knife. As mentioned, living in SA, we do not get any Condor products here and I am hoping to purchase one later this month when I am in the US.

    Mainly for self protection (amongst other things) while hiking, I have also been looking at the Ka-Bar Cutlass Machete which is similar in both length and price to the Condor Enep Knife.

    Anyway, keep up the great blog, very interesting topics.

    Regards,
    Karl

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