I'm almost done reading Yossi Ghinsberg's book "Jungle" in which he survives being lost in the Amazon for about 3 weeks. The story was part of Discovery's "I Shouldn't Be Alive" series. Yossi's story backs up the wisdom of having a machete as your primary tool in the jungle. I have read other accounts explaining how the Amazon natives do everything from cleaning fish to felling trees with their machetes.

All the machetes I've ever seen in person were el-cheapo $4.99 versions with poor sheaths and, I suspect, poor steel. Does anyone have experience/knowledge on truly high quality machetes, or machete-like tools, to share?