Marbles Parang 18

I decided to order this as there was a tree that came down over a path. The good this thing chopped through the tree branches with ease a lot more hacking power than I had expected. The bad , the handle stock is very roughly finished and does require reshaping for a comfortable grip. Luckily the wood it’s made from is very soft and easy to reshape to fit your hand with some light whittling and sandpaper. The ugly, it’s bright orange. That said if you are bush crafting in the woods there’s no way you are going to lose it. Overall it definitely does what it’s designed to do, it’s cheap but does require you to put some work into it before it’s comfortable to use.

I have a couple of machetes for garden work and using down on the shoot. I bought this for the blade shape and as a chopper it is excellent. As with my favoured Tramontina I had to adapt the handle a bit and wrap with self welding tape now its perfectly comfortable. Mine was very sharp out of the box and as normal Hennies service was world class.

I wanted a very lightweight tool that could perform equally well on light brush and timber. After a little work sanding the handle this is perfect. It out performs latin style machetes, traditional kukri and even cuts fairly heavy timber for firewood or construction. Impossible to lose and looks like a tool not a weapon. Great tool. And great service from Heinnie Haynes as useual.

Pros: Inexpensive, Takes a good edge with just an axe puck, Robust - Been using for 10+ yrs and still going strong. Cons: Handle a bit rough - needed sanding down along the blade groove. Not quite full tang but 3/4 feels solid enough.

I specifically bought this orange tool a few months ago from Heinnie due to putting down my other machette and not being able to find it again. I have to say that it really is a very handy and robust tool, it has a nice blade that holds a decent edge, it's well balanced and has a good weight behind it for chopping and cutting back. The only sheath I bought with it was also very good and the small sharpening stone supplied with the sheath is also very useful. My only gripe is the cheapness of the handle, but considering how cheap the tool is overall it's a really insignificant gripe.

I've been using this for a couple of weeks for trimming laurel hedges. It's a good, solidly made tool that slices straight through thin branches and can hack it's way through thicker ones. The handle could maybe do with an extra bit of sanding, but I wouldn't want it to be perfectly smooth either or it would be difficult to keep a good grip on. Not having a sheath isn't ideal, but I made a perfectly functional one out of some duct tape and the box Heinnie shipped the tool in, and then added a little bit of paracord to make a belt loop. So, that's not enough for me to knock a point off.

Great heavy chopper, made easy work of a fallen tree top. Handle is rough and needs sanding or you'll have to use gloves all the time. Made in El Salvador which is good news. No sheath available (not yet anyway at time of writing) hence only 4 stars otherwise a great buy, think I will remove the orange to see what's underneath though. Heinnies usual great service as well what more could you need.