TRAMONTINA 18
Knives Illustrated|September - October 2020
THE BLADE YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU NEEDED
BRYAN J. BALL
TRAMONTINA 18

The Tramontina machete is a bit of an enigma. It has an exotic-sounding name and is from Brazil. It also has a blade shape that reminds you of classic jungle-slashing tools you see in the movies. It has a nice-looking wooden handle. It comes with a pretty decent sheath. But you can buy it at your local big-box store for $20. What?

Like most first-time Tramontina buyers, my purchase of this machete was mostly unplanned. I somehow managed to lose my faithful old Gerber machete (I know it’s hard to lose a machete, but you’ve never seen the giant mess that is my garage) and needed another one pronto to do some yard work. I went to Lowe’s planning on buying another Gerber or something and saw this beauty for about a third of the price. I figured it was worth a shot. It was definitely worth more than that.

At first, I thought that “Tramontina” was the name of the style of machete or something. It sounds exotic enough to be. Turns out it’s actually a huge company. Tramontina was founded by Italian immigrants to Brazil in 1911. It now makes just about every sort of cutlery you can imagine and has grown into one of the largest employers in the country.

You Get Way More Than You Pay For

The Tramontina is a pretty impressive package hanging on a hook in a store. The wooden handle is very well-finished, and the canvas sheath actually seems very sturdy and well made.

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Denne historien er fra September - October 2020-utgaven av Knives Illustrated.

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