Im blessed with living in Florida and within a 3 hour drive of Mosquito Lagoon Preserve (NASA) which is a great place for fishing, boating, hiking, canoeing, camping, kayaking (you name it). Being that I go and stay for 3 to 8 day trips space is always at a premium and island camping is the only thing allowed which can be thick with growth. A good machete is a must but very hard to carry and annoying in tight brush. Recently I went with a co worked that had a SP-8 Spec Ops machete made by Ontario Knife (http://www.ontarioknife.com/Internet/specplus_pg1.html) ... after 10 minutes of using this thing I was in envying him and spent the next 3 days of the trip asking to use it... I had to go drop the $50 to get one.

The blade weight is hefty at 10" x 1/4" (sorry I don't know the weight, im guessing 1.5 lbs) but the swing is much easier than an axe or standard machete because of its weight, or lack of it, pending what you compare it to. With the front of the blade being blunt you have two cutting surfaces and can cut brush like mad and it still leaves you a second cutting surface to work with later on for finer stuff. The handle is molded to the shank and very slip resistant, sense I have larger hands I was able to add about 7.5 feet of 550 cord wrapped over the rubber grip which is nice to have at your side. The sheath looks a little odd but is very well designed and built, comfortable to wear, and above all safe secure and easy to access. The only down fall I could find was the backsaw leaves a bit to be desired and the blade angle needs a good hour plus worth of work when new but will sharpen up to shave hair and remain that way with considerable abuse.

Being that this thing is 15 1/8 inches long it would probably be consider massive to most but when compared to a normal machete its much easier for anyone that would need one at their disposal... not to mention it doubling as a hammer, pry bar, or robbery deterrent!!!

Mike