My New Tool

During our visit to Cayman Brac in March, we did occasional hiking around the island to see what there was to discover. We saw lots of cool birds, terrain, a lighthouse, and amazing views off cliffs that just dropped off into the sea 1000 feet below. As we were walking along one particular day, I found a machete lying on the ground, and telling by its condition, it seemed to have been there a while. I picked it up and the thing was pretty heavy. Tip to tip, I’d say this sucker was at least three feet long, with a sturdy plastic handle. The blade was rusted pretty heavily towards the tip, and spotted throughout the rest. I gave it a few swings and the whole thing was so long and heavy the momentum was hard to control. After a few swings, it was obvious someone could remove toes – or worse! – with this tool if they weren’t too careful about both the speed and direction of their swings. (Maybe that’s what happened with the last owner and he abandoned the thing as he hobbled away for medical treatment.)

Anyway, I carried my “new” tool back to the car and showed off my new finding to Crystal and her parents. Obviously Crystal’s dad showed great interest in the find. He brings a machete on vacations like this to cut open coconuts, chop down bamboo, or whatever else may need to be hacked apart – you never know. He offered to take the machete back to the states and repair the metal as well as sharpen the blade. I figured it would be a good idea since I probably wouldn’t use it in its current state.

So skip ahead a few months, 7 actually, to this Wednesday when the mailman came by as I was leaving home to go back to work after lunch. He was carrying a long thin cardboard package addressed to me and couldn’t fit it in the box. Seeing it was from Crystal’s dad, I went in an opened it up. I pulled out a nice thick, black nylon sheath that obviously contained my machete. I undid the Velcro strap, grabbed the plastic handle and carefully pulled out the blade. If I know anything about Crystal’s dad at this point, it’s that something like this will have a SHARP blade. Sure enough, out pulls a beautiful, shiny, polished blade with a razor sharp edge.

He did really great work - it looks impressive. And the one detail you're not able to make out in that photo, he had it engraved to mark the memorable event that took place while we vacationed on Cayman Brac.

The blade is a bit shorter than it was originally (about 2 and a half feet now, total length) where a lot of the rust was removed, which will ultimately result in more accurate swings (and fewer missing toes). The unit as a whole is balanced nicely around the handle and the shorter blade lends to a lighter overall assembly. Of course I took it outside and quickly removed a few suckers from the lemon tree. It was like a hot knife through butter. I’m excited to bring it on our next tropical or camping vacation!