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Old 19th March 2011, 01:10 AM   #26
tom hyle
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Houston, TX, USA
Posts: 1,254
Default machete

Interestingly enough, to me, machete is a very major example of a traditional work sword with convex curvature. I do not consider hooked bill-like swords true machetes, nor for that matter are sugar cane knives, nor a variety of other square-tipped work swords to which the term is often applied. To me a true machete is curved backward (ie like a sabre), usually rather slightly, usually mostly at the tip, usually mostly on the true/front/cutting edge.
Good old machetes do have distal taper, and it makes a particularly big difference in using quality in these thin swords.
Billman, I am really enjoying you; you have shown up since I have been gone.
I am glad to see a trend on this forum progressing away from the tradition of arbitrarily misidentifying unkown blades as tourist/decorator pieces, BTW
And then (convexly curved work swords) there is the butcher's scymitar.....
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