Would you call this a small Machete ... or not ?

[fernando]

Moving this one to the Ethno forum.

[BBJW]

Looks like something I made in high school metal shop.--bbjw

[M ELEY]

Very interesting piece! The blade proportions and shape remind me of a Chinese dao, but the 'handle' is so 'tool' shaped. If this were only a few inches, that grip would make me think it was a scalpel or a wood-working tool, but at 18" !? Not so sure...

[fernando]

Thanks much, Gentlemen. So ... definitely not a standard pattern thing. And not a kitchen knife, either . Dare i say its blade has a Bowie touch... in a custom made fashion ...

[Interested Party]

Agricultural tool?

[fernando]

I don't think so. The front section has a (weapon) knife shape; whether a workshop exercise or the real thing.

[Jim McDougall]

IMO, most definitely a 'machete' and as these were locally made usually by blacksmiths, there is no 'standard' simply a pragmatic following of general functional form for an agricultural tool.
The term 'machete' has a pretty tortured etymology stemming loosely from Latin terms for hammer or club, which became 'mazo' (=club, Sp.) then more dramatic 'macho' (=sledge hammer).
The term 'machete' is Spanish diminutive to that term, which became assoc. with these heavy chopping tools.

As they were open hilted and resembling short swords, they often found use aboard Spanish ships (examples found on Atocha wreck, 1622; and Maravillas wreck 1649) as weapons but more ashore for clearing through vegetation. The use of 'machetes' as weapons is well known to the present day, and tools as weapons to weapons as tools, is a pretty standard exchange. I would note that many of the 'machetes' (later becoming 'cutlasses' by term) came from these used by Basque peasantry in fields and ended up on vessels out of the well known port of Bilbao ("Small Arms of the Spanish Treasure Fleets", Noel Wells, 2006).

It is always hard to identify privately made knives and tools as they are typically unmarked, only nominally follow established forms, and as they remained in use for generations, were traded or sold off without provenance its anybodys guess. The blade tip does have a Bowie gestalt so could very well be Spanish colonial and probably 19th c. possibly early. As well observed by Mark, the blade tip does have a remarkable resemblance to the short and heavy Chinese da dao. Chinese influences were of course well known in that far western part of the 'Spanish Main', in the Philippines.

[fernando]

Thank you for your input, Jim. My asking if this thing is a machete was more to define whether its form fitted in the tradionally machete known way and not the ethimology of the term; which, not wishing (or afford) to be academic, its origin is not so solid. Look how the various Spanish sources deal with the term in its acceptations.
The origin of the term machete is unknown, but it is mostly believed that it is a diminutive of macho. Another possibility is that it comes from the term machaera and this one in turn from the Greek μάχαιρα, which the Romans used to describe the Iberian falcata with similar characteristics.
This word is etymologically composed of the Latin «marcŭlus» small martillo or male and the suffix «ete» which indicates diminutive with affective expressions and at the same time as derogatory.
Although its name is Spanish, possibly derived from 'macho', its ancestors are located at the dawn of history. The investigators are inclined to label the falchion as its most dangerous parent, whose appearance is located in Europe in the XI century.
And last but not least, although for the fun of it, the machete term in Spanish school lexicon, is a 'cheat sheet' implement .