I'm a fan of machetes. Some time ago, and still in very isolated areas, many people use it as an all-purpose tool. Butchering wild game, clearing trees, weeding the garden, slicing vegetables and carving delicate items out of wood all gets done with the same machete. Very poor families may have only one metal tool, the family machete.

Machetes with a flipped up sharp point on the end can be gripped near the tip and used for fine work as the handle lay across the lap. Machetes work well for even inexperienced users cutting softwoods and tropical vegetation. If you know what you are doing a machete will work on very hard woods. Some of the hardest wood known to man comes from tropical jungles and if you control the swing and angle, and take your time, a good machete will cut even very dense and tough wood.

With some practice a lot of people can get along quite well with the combination of a machete for large stuff and a smallish folder for fine work. A file and a small sharpening stone can keep both sharp indefinitely.

The good news is that good quality machetes are not expensive.