Wow. Big honkin hunk of sharp steel. I LOVE this thing. Not light, but heavy to work well.

MASTERPIECE

I use it to cut down heavy brush at close quarters on a side of a hill. I am very satisfied with the way it handles, and recommend for others to use.

This Japanese inspired weapon is bad ass to the bone! It feels good and chops gooder. Big enough to scare off grizzly bears. Looks nice on your hip. Can carry all day chopping up things

First let me say the Nata has a great look and feel I look forward to testing out when it thaws outside in the spring. Second is I realize this is $100 machete so was not expecting an heirloom.That being said I don’t understand the sheath. It weighs 8oz, the blade doesn’t lock in it except for rubber strap, and it’s too wide at handle so blade moves around. Very loose, you would not use as everyday carry in woods or backpacking.Keeping for the blade design but I’ll have to figure out something else for scabbard.

I was looking for a tool to chop up tree branches (which is not something I need to do very often) and this performed better than my 13 inch kukri. The choil was just large enough to feel comfortable choking up and making smaller precision chops. If I could critique anything, it would be maybe the switch on the spine tapered a little more for prying tasks and that it would be easier to find accessories for sheath attachments.

It's an awesome piece of steel right out of the box. A little touch up with a sharpener to hone that factory edge and it's a razor blade that's super heavy duty!

Wie von Silky zu erwarten Top Qualität, habe es einige Zeit im Einsatz, Feuerholz batonieren, Entasten, Posten spitzen. Macht alles mit zum hacken bestens geeignet da es Kopflastig ist und man wenig Kraft aufbringen muss. Der Silikongriff liegt sehr gut in der Hand . Klare Kaufempfehlung

Both are nice choppers in green wood, especially if you take the time to tune up the edge at 17 degrees for the double, as silky recommends, polish it with a buffing wheel, then strop it until it shaves with a stropping compound. This takes a while since it's hard steel & hard chromed, but with power tools & know how can be done in about 20min.However, the total angle for the double bevel is 34 degrees, great for chopping, keeps the edge intact for a long time, not great for much else. It's bad for cutting, slicing, shaving/whittling wood. It's actually pretty bad as a general purpose "camp hatchet", compared to an actual hatchet where you can choke up & control the ax head for fine work & much worse than a scandi-grind task knife like a mora garberg.The single bevel is much better at these finer camp tasks due to the smaller total angle (seems to be about 20 degrees from what I can tell). However it operates somewhat strangely as a chopper, requiring a different strike angle & technique depending on if you're chopping to the left or the right. This can make it behave seemingly unpredictably until you figure out that it needs to chop in more at 45-60deg from left to right and 25-30deg from right to left. It also chops significantly worse from left to right unless you hit the angle perfectly, due to the more perpendicular angle required to avoid glancing hits, but it chops better than the double bevel when chopping in from right to left.Overall it's a strange tool. It hits above it's size as a chopper (although not really above its considerable weight), but the double bevel is borderline useless for other tasks, so bring a 3-4" task knife with a scandi grind. However, the double bevel is also not as good as a true ax at chopping due to the inferior length & lower "tip speed" it achieves. But, in greenwood under 1" it is a more efficient clearer than an ax due to the more forgiving blade length & has plenty of power to chop easily. For thicker & harder woods, you'll be better served by a saw.Where it really shines is taking small, sub 1" limbs & twigs off of standing trees. IE trail clearing. It's not even really good at general brush clearing because sweeping down it lacks the length to clear low ground cover & brambles without a lot of bending at waist/knees. It's also a bit dangerous due to the weight when swinging down if you ever swing across body or inline with your body. If you miss the strike or slice through too easily, the overswing can catch you. Like an ax, you need to be always swinging out of line with your body or driving the momentum more linearly downward or across rather than swinging around to avoid glancing or overswinging into your own leg.One problem here is that even as a trailblazer, it is outshined by it's brother, the Silky Yoki. The brushax style hook head & extra length of the Yoki, as well as thinner spine profile make it as effective of a chopper as the Nata (though not as good as the 1 bevel from right to left) on sub 1" greenwood, able to take it in one stroke when sharp, hitting the correct angle for the wood, & flicking & drawing the tip to maximize speed. However, the Yoki is much safer to use due to the hook head reducing glancing, increased length, reduced weight, & the dull hook head being what will strike you first if you still manage to overswing rather than a heavy razor sharp tip. Relies more on speed, geometry, & a more concentrated sweet spot than raw weight to back it's blows. Yoki also performs better when dull due to being able to wrist flick the thinner, longer blade up to a higher tip speed more easily.Overall, it's a cool blade & does perform, but it fits in a narrow niche where it is overshadowed by more more dedicated designs on every front. My 19" grans fors is almost twice the chopper at similar sharpness. A 4" scandi 'bushcraft' blade is infinitely better for small tasks. Yoki's brushax style blade is much better for trailblazing, while still achieving 80-85% of the raw chopping power of the Nata.It's basically a short, effective machete with some overlap with a hatchet. It's in a similar camp to the kukri. Good for what it is and if you need one tool to clear brush, chop, & poorly perform camp knife/bushcraft tasks, it will work, but for trailblazing I always reach for the Yoki + Zubat combo (be sure to clip zubat scabbard around leg for quick deploy/sheathing). For camping I take the 19" grans fors axe with aluminum belt sheath, Mora garberg, & Gomboy 180. Between these I can do everything I want to efficiently.I never find myself reaching for either Nata except to experiment with it.