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Old 5th November 2023, 03:35 PM   #2
Jim McDougall
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
Posts: 9,796
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Fernando, you are the master of bringing bizarre anomalies to 'show and tell' !

This 'item' is indeed 'crude' but 'too crude' for a machete, NOT. Most machetes are inherently crude as they are often fashioned from materials and components either handy to the village blacksmiths. Often repurposed blades and components might be used, but this is clearly locally forged.

Naturally this character is typical in so many of the tools, weapons etc. in Spanish colonial context, but of course, also in the rural regions in Portugal and Spain. Many of the 'cutlasses' used aboard vessels in the 17th-18th c. came from Basque field tools, i.e. machetes.

Actually, as we have often discussed, there is virtually little distinction between weapon and tool, and machetes are the classic example.

The well known 'espada ancha' of Spains colonies in the northern frontiers of Mexico was actually never called that, but what known for exactly what it was...a machete. While many used the dragoon blades from swords, it became well known that the heavier locally forged blades were better for their actual use, brushing trails etc.

Many of these blades locally made had a distinctive feature, which was actually 'uptick' at the blade tip. It would seem these had some sort of purpose in the utilitarian function of the machete, which I am not qualified to describe, however its presence was placed with purpose.

With that I would note the peculiar feature in the blade tip may have some remote association to the character of many machete blades.

The length of this blade @ over 30 inches gives it good length for effective use, and while the thin (2") width seems questionable with most machetes having wide, stout blades....a solid iron blade narrow would be easier to wield. The Cuban machetes known as guanabacoa have even narrower blades in some examples.

This is obviously excavated, and of considerable age, seeing the inner impurities of the iron working out through the surface in reaction to minerals in the soil or its deposit context.
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