This is a very good machete for less than 9 dollars. I bought 4 of them to pass out as presents to my friends and one to keep. It is true about the weight balance being too far away from the end, but it doesn't bother me. The handle is a little un-comfortable to hang onto, but this seems to be a very well built tool. I prefer the O.K.C. (Ontario Knife Company) D handle machete over this one, but it seems to be sold out a lot. If you can't wait to buy one of the O.K.C. machetes, this would be a good alternate choice. This is a Cold Steel product, and is much better than the junk from Wal-mart or Home Depot.

If anything the other reviews here UNDERSELL these machetes ! I cannot believe I ever spent $20 on the toys I used to buy in the big-box garden center. It has a big, hefty, solid handle instead of the two pieces of hollow plastic riveted together the other guys use. If you have big hands you will appreciate the fact you can wrap your whole hand around it and not have your pinkie hanging off the end. The best part is that it takes and keeps an edge and it is such a nice chunky blade the tool does most of the work instead of me. All this for under $9.

Not near enough weight for any serious hacking, after about 5 mins. my wrist was feeling strained. It might be fine for wacking briars or small vines, or for a woman. I had to toss this thing aside and go back to my old machete for now, a waste of money for me.

i got this was surprised by the cutting abilities of this machete.I love mine and recommend u get one.

After trying a few machetes from Lowes and Home Depot I read a forum comment from someone about these Cold Steel machetes. They are considerably thicker than the machetes I've had in the past and hold an edge much better (and actually arrive with a pretty decent edge - unlike the ones from Lowes and HD). This thing has held up perfectly after numerous tough weekends of clearing brush, etc. And I'm hard on these things... I've chopped all sizes of branches, small trees, smacked the dirt numerous times, and left it outside for weeks. At less than $8.00 it is practically disposable but it is still in excellent condition. Just spend 5 minutes filing a good edge on it and you are ready to go! If anyone knows of a better machete for even twice the price please let me know.