Holy Grail of Machetes DAH MKIII

[Peter Laidler]

Suurpmil has it for me. We called our issue machettes, PARANGS, GOLLOCKS or PANGAS. They were all the same. Some had wood handle grips while others had a sort of compressed dark red fibre stuff. Quite useful bits of kit and the blokes used to keep them pretty sharp. So sharp that when opening a coconut, it spouted milk out and the next hack he took, his hand slid down the blade opening up his fingers. Good job for field dressings..........

[Mk VII]

Brig. Fergusson, somewhere in The Wild Green Earth, records that his complaints about the poor quality steel of the dahs supplied by the Indian Army Ordnance Corps reached a high-level official.


"I explained how one bout of five minutes cutting serrated the edge like a saw. He was horrified, alright, but not for the reason we meant. "Do you mean to say you've been trying to cut trees with them?" he asked, scandalised.
"Well, what else is a dah for?"
"I'm not quite sure", he said, "but not that"
He was a perfect example of the type of officer I call 'pit ponies' who spend their lives in offices and blink when they get out in the open air."

[browningautorifle]

He was a perfect example of the type of officer I call 'pit ponies'

I can imagine you trying to explain indirect fire with the GPMG to him then...

[Peter Laidler]

Trying to explain indirect fire by map and compass, with elevation angles and wind thrown in for good measure to Armourers was an alien concept too! I never got the hang of it. But I used to not in agreement at the sustained fire crews when they tried to explain the intricacies to me on the firing line. They might just as well as been speaking swahili to me.....

[Sapper740]

Chapter Six of David Gordon's "EQUIPMENT OF THE WWII TOMMY" covers just about every edged weapon and tool from the Smatchet to the Kukri to the gravity knife and everything in between.

[Surpmil]

Suurpmil has it for me. We called our issue machettes, PARANGS, GOLLOCKS or PANGAS. They were all the same. Some had wood handle grips while others had a sort of compressed dark red fibre stuff. Quite useful bits of kit and the blokes used to keep them pretty sharp. So sharp that when opening a coconut, it spouted milk out and the next hack he took, his hand slid down the blade opening up his fingers. Good job for field dressings..........

Not a job for the inexperienced opening coconuts with a machete, the residents of those regions seem to do it unerringly, but I suspect quite a few kiddies lost their left thumbs in the learning process.