{{Short description|Type of broad and heavy knife}} {{Other uses}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}} thumb|Machete/saw combo [[File:Agustín Cruz Tinoco working.jpg|thumb|Mexican artisan Agustín Cruz Tinoco using a machete to carve wood]] thumb|Mexican machete, from Guerrero, 1970. bull horn handle, hand forged blade (hammer marks visible) thumb|Campos Hermanos Mexican machete with blade 75 centimeters long and 93 total.
A '''machete''' ({{IPAc-en|m|ə|ˈ|ʃ|ɛ|t|i}}; {{IPA|es|maˈtʃete}}) is a broad blade originating from Central America. It is used either as an agricultural implement similar to an axe, or in combat like a long-bladed knife. The blade is typically {{convert|30|to|66|cm|in}} long and usually under {{convert|3|mm|in|frac=16}} thick. In the Spanish language, the word is possibly a diminutive form of the word ''macho'', which was used to refer to sledgehammers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=machete|title=Online Etymology Dictionary|work=etymonline.com|access-date=10 December 2016}}</ref> Alternatively, its origin may be ''machaera'', the name given by the Greeks and Romans to the falcata.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archivoshistoria.com/la-falcata-arma-iberica-o-mito-romantico/|title = La falcata ¿mito romántico o realidad? - Archivos de la Historia|date = 8 April 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.armas.es/arma-blanca/el-machete-abriendose-paso-en-jungla-y-combate|title = El Machete: Abriéndose paso en jungla y combate - Mundo Armas| last1=Es | first1=Armas }}</ref> It is the origin of the English language equivalent term ''matchet'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/matchet |title=matchet |work=Dictionary/thesaurus |publisher=The Free Dictionary |access-date=7 February 2009}}</ref> though this is rarely used. In much of the English-speaking Caribbean, such as Jamaica,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1481752359 Blair, Teresa P. ''A-Z of Jamaican Patois (Patwah),'' Page 49, Google Books Result]</ref> Barbados, Guyana, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago, the term ''cutlass'' is used for these agricultural tools.<ref name= "Klein">{{cite magazine | last=Klein | first=John | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/what-is-a-machete-anyway/280705/ | title=What Is a Machete, Anyway? | magazine=The Atlantic | date=21 October 2013 | access-date=15 January 2015}}</ref>
== Uses ==
=== Agriculture=== In various tropical and subtropical countries, the machete is frequently used to cut through rainforest undergrowth and for agricultural purposes (e.g. cutting sugar cane).<ref name="FranzRogers2012">{{Cite book |last1=Franz |first1=Carl |last2=Havens |first2=Lorena |editor1-last=Rogers |editor1-first=Steve |editor2-last=Rogers |editor2-first=Felisa Churpa Rosa |date=2012 |title=The People's Guide to Mexico |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I2YZgJJXj1YC&pg=PA278 |edition=14th |location=Berkeley, Calif. |publisher=Avalon Travel |pages=277–278 |isbn=978-1-61238-049-0}}</ref> Besides this, in Latin America a common use is for such household tasks as cutting large foodstuffs into pieces—much as a cleaver is used—or to perform crude cutting tasks, such as making simple wooden handles for other tools.<ref name="FranzRogers2012"/> It is common to see people using machetes for other jobs, such as splitting open coconuts, yard work, removing small branches and plants, chopping food, and clearing bushes.<ref name="FranzRogers2012"/>
Machetes are often considered tools and used by adults. However, many hunter–gatherer societies and cultures surviving through subsistence agriculture begin teaching babies to use sharp tools, including machetes, before their first birthdays.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/how_babies_work/2013/04/09/bad_parenting_ideas_that_are_actually_good_for_some_babies.html|title=Give Your Baby a Machete|last=Day|first=Nicholas|date=9 April 2013|work=Slate|access-date=19 April 2013}}</ref>
=== Warfare === People in uprisings sometimes use these weapons. For example, the Boricua Popular Army are unofficially called ''macheteros'' because of the machete-wielding laborers of sugar cane fields of past Puerto Rico.<ref name="Martin2011">{{cite book|last=Martin|first=Gus|title=The SAGE Encyclopedia of Terrorism, Second Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I_jh4VBi_HYC&pg=PA490|date=15 June 2011|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-1-4129-8016-6|page=490}}</ref>
Many of the killings in the 1994 Rwandan genocide were performed with machetes,<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Verwimp | first1 = P. | title = Machetes and Firearms: the Organization of Massacres in Rwanda | journal = Journal of Peace Research | volume = 43| issue = 1 | pages = 5–22| year = 2006 | doi = 10.1177/0022343306059576| doi-access = }}</ref> and they were the primary weapon used by the Interahamwe militias there.<ref>{{cite news |first=Mary |last=Braid |title=The Jungle Massacre: African rebels who revel in their machete genocide |work=The Independent |date=3 March 1999 |access-date=6 February 2009 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/the-jungle-massacre-african-rebels-who-revel-in-their-machete-genocide-1077954.html |archive-date=12 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180112170811/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/the-jungle-massacre-african-rebels-who-revel-in-their-machete-genocide-1077954.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Machetes were also a distinctive tool and weapon of the Haitian ''Tonton Macoute''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.haitianmedia.com/index.php/46 |title=Tonton Macoute |work=Haiti History |publisher=Haitian Media |access-date=6 February 2009 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130103074957/http://www.haitianmedia.com/index.php/46 |archive-date=3 January 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
In 1762, the British captured Havana in a lengthy siege during the Seven Years' War. Volunteer militiamen led by Pepe Antonio, a Guanabacoa councilman, were issued with machetes during the unsuccessful defense of the city.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cubanow.net/articles/why-did-english-take-over-havana |title=Why Did The English Take Over Havana? |first=Mildrey |last=Ponce |year=2007 |publisher=Cuba Now |access-date=6 February 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714143344/http://www.cubanow.net/articles/why-did-english-take-over-havana |archive-date=14 July 2014 }}</ref> The machete was also the most iconic weapon during the independence wars in Cuba, although it saw limited battlefield use.<ref>{{cite book |first=John Lawrence |last=Tone |title=War and Genocide in Cuba, 1895–1898 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8078-3006-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OxRVaAPpeCsC |chapter=Chapter 10: Mal Tiempo and the Romance of the Machete |pages=126–127}}</ref> Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, owner of the sugar refinery ''La Demajagua'' near Manzanillo, freed his slaves on 10 October 1868. He proceeded to lead them, armed with machetes, in revolt against the Spanish government.<ref>{{cite book |title=Cuba |first=A G |last=Gravette |edition=5the |publisher=New Holland Publishers |isbn=978-1-84537-860-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y7B51dAgT8MC |chapter=Chapter 7: The Southern Peninsula |page=106 |date=28 September 2007}}</ref> The first cavalry charge using machetes as the primary weapon was carried out on 4 November 1868 by Máximo Gómez, a sergeant born in the Dominican Republic, who later became the general in chief of the Cuban Army.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cubagob.cu/otras_info/minfar/defensa_ingles/imaximo.htm |title=Major General Máximo Gómez Báez |access-date=6 February 2009 |work=Revolutionary Armed Forces |publisher=Gobierno de la Republica de Cuba |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304000649/http://www.cubagob.cu/otras_info/minfar/defensa_ingles/imaximo.htm |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
The machete is a common side arm and tool for many ethnic groups in West Africa. Machetes in this role are referenced in Chinua Achebe's ''Things Fall Apart''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/things/summary.html |title=Plot Overview |work=Things Fall Apart |publisher=SparkNotes |access-date=6 February 2009}}</ref>
Some countries have a name for the blow of a machete; the Spanish ''machetazo'' is sometimes used in English.<ref name="Sturges2010">{{cite book|last=Sturges|first=James Walter|title=Machetes in the Trunk: Three Weeks in Panama|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=plSb1MoA0hQC&pg=PA31|date=August 2010|publisher=James Sturges|isbn=978-1-4404-8664-7|page=31}}</ref> In the British Virgin Islands, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Barbados, Saint Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago, the word ''planass'' means to hit someone with the flat of the blade of a machete or cutlass.<ref name="Allsopp">{{cite book |title=Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage |first=Richard |last=Allsopp |publisher=University of the West Indies Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-976-640-145-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PmvSk13sIc0C |pages= 184, 442–443}}</ref> To strike with the sharpened edge is to "chop". Throughout the English-speaking islands of the Caribbean, the term "cutlass" refers to a laborers' cutting tool.<ref name="Allsopp"/>
The Brazilian Army's Instruction Center on Jungle Warfare developed a machete-style knife with a blade {{convert|10|in|cm|0|order=flip|abbr=on}} in length and a very pronounced clip point. This machete is issued with a {{convert|5|in|cm|order=flip|abbr=on|0}} Bowie knife and a sharpening stone in the scabbard, collectively called a "jungle kit" (''Conjunto de Selva'' in Portuguese); it is manufactured by Indústria de Material Bélico do Brasil (IMBEL).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.snstecnologia.com.br/imbel3/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=68&Itemid=117 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429033710/http://www.snstecnologia.com.br/imbel3/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=68&Itemid=117 |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 April 2021 |title=Conjunto de Selva |work=Produtos |publisher=Indústria de Material Bélico do Brasil |access-date=20 February 2012 }}</ref>
The machete was used as a weapon during the Mau Mau rebellion, and in South Africa, particularly in the 1980s and early 1990s when the former province of Natal was wracked by conflict between the African National Congress and the Zulu-nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party.<ref name="Cavaleri2005">{{cite book|last=Cavaleri|first=David P.|title=The Law of War: Can 20th Century Standards Apply to the Global War on Terrorism?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gq820_ESKXgC&pg=PA66|year=2005|publisher=DIANE Publishing|isbn=978-1-4379-2301-8|page=66}}</ref>
== Manufacture == [[File:A craftsman sharpening a machete in Lira, Uganda.jpg|thumb|A Ugandan craftsman sharpening a machete]] Good machetes rely on the materials used and the shape. In the past, the most famous manufacturer of machetes in Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean was Collins Company of Collinsville, Connecticut.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/consularservice01jonegoog |first=Chester Lloyd |last=Jones |title=The Consular Service of the United States: Its History and Activities |year=1906 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia |page=[https://archive.org/details/consularservice01jonegoog/page/n86 72]}}</ref> The company was founded as Collins & Company in 1826 by Samuel W. Collins to make axes.<ref>{{cite book |first=Henry J. |last=Kauffman |title=American Axes: A Survey of Their Development and Their Makers |chapter=III: The Nineteenth Century |publisher=Masthof Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-1-883294-12-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x5ZiYCZRdHwC |page=30}}</ref> Its first machetes were sold in 1845<ref>{{cite book |title=Collins' Machetes and Bowies, 1845-1965 |first=Daniel Edward |last=Henry |publisher=Krause Publications |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-87341-403-6 |page=15}}</ref> and became so famous that a machete was called {{lang|es|un collin}}.<ref>{{cite book |first=Oliver |last=La Farge |title=A Pictorial History of the American Indian |url=https://archive.org/details/pictorialhistory00lafa |url-access=registration |publisher=Crown Publishers |year=1956 |page=[https://archive.org/details/pictorialhistory00lafa/page/219 219]}}</ref> In the English-speaking Caribbean, Robert Mole & Sons of Birmingham, England, was long considered the manufacturer of agricultural cutlasses of the best quality. Some Robert Mole blades survive as souvenirs of travellers to Trinidad,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/6121694|title=1566: Vintage Trinidad Machete in Leather Sheath : Lot 1566|work=liveauctioneers.com|access-date=10 December 2016}}</ref> Jamaica, and, less commonly, St. Lucia.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}
Colombia is the largest exporter of machetes worldwide.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2014/04/12/activos/190612|title=Colombia líder – La Prensa|date=12 April 2014|website=laprensa.com.ni|access-date=1 May 2018|archive-date=14 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140414094016/http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2014/04/12/activos/190612|url-status=dead}}</ref>
== Cultural influence == [[File:Flag of Angola.svg|thumb|The Flag of Angola]]
The flag of Angola features a machete, along with a cog-wheel as communist symbols.
The southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul has a dance called the ''dança dos facões'' (machetes' dance) in which the dancers, who are usually men, bang their machetes against various surfaces while dancing, simulating a battle. ''Maculelê'', an Afro-Brazilian dance and martial art, can also be performed with ''facões''. This practice began in the city of Santo Amaro, Bahia, in the northeastern part of the country.<ref>{{cite book |first=John Lowell |last=Lewis |title=Ring of Liberation: Deceptive Discourse in Brazilian Capoeira |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-226-47683-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/ringofliberation0000lewi |url-access=registration |chapter=3: Capoeira in Salvador |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ringofliberation0000lewi/page/54 54]–55}}</ref>
In the Jalisco region of Mexico, Los Machetes is a popular folk dance. This dance tells the story of cutting down sugar cane during the harvest. Los Machetes was created by Mexican farm workers who spent a great amount of time perfecting the use of the tool, the machete, for harvesting. Traditionally, real machetes are used while performing this dance.<ref>{{cite web |title=Los Machetes - Folk Dance Fun! |url=https://www.sallysseaofsongs.com/2015/05/los-machetes-folk-dance-fun.html | author=<!--Not stated--> |website=Sally's Sea of Songs |access-date=March 16, 2024}}</ref>
== Similar tools == The '''''panga''''' or ''tapanga'' is a variant used in East and Southern Africa. This name may be of Swahili etymology; not to be confused with the panga fish. The ''panga'' blade broadens on the backside and has a length of {{convert|16|to|18|in|cm|0|order=flip|abbr=on}}. The upper inclined portion of the blade may be sharpened.<ref>{{cite book |title=Farm Implements for Small-scale Farmers in Tanzania |first=Björn |last=Mothander |author2=Finn Kjærby |author3=Kjell J. Havnevik |publisher=Nordic Africa Institute |year=1989 |isbn=978-91-7106-290-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0N0mJ8cvM2gC |pages=36–37}}</ref>
[[File:Basih weapons.jpg|thumb|The traditional bolos of the Philippines are sometimes incorrectly known as "bolo machetes"]] In the Philippines, the various indigenous swords and knives (known under the general term bolo) are commonly incorrectly described as a type of machete (as "bolo machete"). But bolos are unrelated to the machete. They are pre-colonial and hand-forged (unlike mass-produced machetes), with distinct types that differ by ethnic group.<ref name="Bolieu">{{cite web |last1=Bolieu |first1=Reuben |title=Forged Filipino Bolo Knives |url=https://www.knivesillustrated.com/forged-filipino-bolo-knives/ |website=Knives Illustrated |access-date=23 October 2025}}</ref> The most obvious difference is the shape of the cutting edge, which is typically curved in bolos and more or less straight in machetes.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Alth |first1=Max |title=Sharpening Hand Tools: Storey's Country Wisdom Bulletin A-66 |date=1982 |publisher=Storey Publishing, LLC |isbn=9781603425971}}</ref> Bolos are also usually shorter than machetes, at around {{convert|25|to|45|cm|in|abbr=on}} long, and are adapted to a wider range of uses.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://thecontentauthority.com/blog/machete-vs-bolo|title=Machete vs Bolo: Decoding Common Word Mix-Ups |website=The Content Authority |access-date=23 October 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Tait |first1=Matt |title=Bolo: Filipino survival blade |url=https://sevenswords.uk/bolo/ |website=Seven Swords |access-date=23 October 2025}}</ref>
Other similar tools include the ''parang''<ref>{{cite book |title=A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration, and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and in All Times: In All Countries and in All Times|first=George Cameron |last=Stone |author2=Donald J. LaRocca |publisher=Courier Dover Publications |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-486-40726-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A4Rp_Qx9in4C |pages=481–482}}</ref> and the ''golok''<ref>{{cite book |title=A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration, and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and in All Times: In All Countries and in All Times |first=George Cameron |last=Stone |author-link=George Cameron Stone |author2=Donald J. LaRocca |publisher=Courier Dover Publications |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-486-40726-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A4Rp_Qx9in4C |page=249}}</ref> (from Malaysia and Indonesia); however, these tend to have shorter, thicker blades with a primary grind, and are more effective on woody vegetation.
The tsakat is a similar tool used in Armenia for clearing land of vegetation.
Other similar tools include:
* Billhook * Dusack * Golok * Kopis * Kukri * Seax * Sorocaban Knife
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{commons category-inline|Machetes}}
{{Knives}} {{Forestry tools}} {{Garden tools}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Machetes Category:American inventions Category:Edged and bladed weapons Category:Camping equipment Category:Forestry tools Category:Gardening tools Category:Hiking equipment Category:National symbols of Angola