By Luke Causey

Here’s a project that was inspired by a video on Donny Dust's YouTube page. He's got a modded bolo machete that he shortened from the handle end, and it looked so slick I decided to hack up a perfectly good machete of my own. So this isn't an original idea, but it's a very cool result.

I’ve named my version the Bolocrafter. Since I have an angle grinder and a complete lack of adult supervision, here's how it went….

I started with a short Tramontina Bolo machete. Any of them will work, but I found the 14" blade version and went with that.

The wood handle is made in one piece with a groove for the straight tang. I wanted to reuse the handle, which means I managed to overcomplicate an otherwise simple chop job.

The pins are recessed slightly in a countersink with small washers on the side that are peened over. I clamped it to my work bench, center-punched the pins on the peened side, and drilled them out.

The pins pushed right through and the handle was off. I used the handle slid onto the blade to get a rough idea of the blade length I wanted. I settled on a 9-inch blade length.

With that sorted out, the chop job commenced. I lopped off the original handle tang and used it as a template to lay out the shape and hole pattern. Drilling the holes was a bear with my worn-out random drill bits, but I sprung for a cobalt bit and that did the trick. If I did this again, I'd anneal the spots where the holes go just to make life easier. This isn't the hardest steel, but it certainly isn't hammered out of an old Nissan bumper either.

I taped the handle onto the new tang, donned my nicest loincloth, and ran around in the yard for a bit. My original transition on the back of the handle to the blade was too steep. You can see that in this picture. I eventually softened that and blended it in.

Pins were some plain aluminum rod and assembly was done with enough epoxy to stick my shoes to the shop floor. I originally used a clear epoxy but that stuff just didn't want to harden. I guess sitting around on a shelf, half-used had bored it to death. I disassembled the whole mess and managed to put a small crack in the handle. I re-started with fresh epoxy, goobered a bunch into the crack, and got it back together. I also settled on just using epoxy to take up the space where the original pins were countersunk. Seems fine....

When these things ship, they aren't ground to any kind of edge near the tip. My 1x30-inch belt sander did a pretty good job of sorting that out, and I was quite pleased with the result.

Still, the shiny blade just didn't look right to me so I tried a forced vinegar patina. That worked okay, but it still wasn’t the dark look I was going for. So, I did what anyone would do and blotted on some plain yellow mustard from the fridge and it came out pretty slick.

With a proper edge on it, it was time for some testing. The next weekend my oldest and I were hiking back from our secret fishing spot and we took a break to bash apart some downed trees. I was very happy with the result. It's lighter than a big knife of this size, but the weight sitting forward really lends it to hatchet like use. Three-inch blowdown pine and aspen was easy and surprisingly comfortable. This really has the makings of something neat. I also managed to snap a picture after dark, but you get the idea. Shrubs and bushes were successfully crafted.

This past hunting season, my youngest and I dropped a very nice mule deer. He was heavy and had about two inches of fat caked under his hide. That dude was ready for winter. About half of the job was done with my favorite big game knife and the rest was done with the Bolocrafter. It did a great job, to the point that I used it to take out both backstraps and separate both hind quarters.

If I’m going to tote this thing around the woods, though, it needs a sheath. Some research on the ol’ Google-box turned up quite a few good ideas involving…fire hose.

I called up my buddy at the local Big Red Truck Hero Shop and asked if they had any decommissioned hose laying around. He said they had plenty, so I stopped by and picked up this roll. I have no idea what size to call this, actually. It says 2 1/2 inches, but it's 3 1/2 inches in diameter when squished out to round, and about 5 inches when laid flat. For what it's worth, it's fire hose and it was free.

The rivets are roofing nails and washers. I dug through my supply of sockets and found a 1/4-inch deep socket to use to squish everything down flat. The process is, drill a hole, press the nail through, then drop a washer over the top. Using the socket, I 'set' the washer down as low as I can get it. Then I snip the nail just above the washer and peen it over. The result is an ultra-simple and effective sheath.

I really enjoy it. I’ve had it in use for about six months. It won’t build your log cabin, but it’ll knock out a fire, clear a shooting lane, and prep your vegetables. This thing is as handy as a pocket on a shirt. It’s not quite a hatchet and not quite a big, heavy knife. It throws a spark from a rock okay, and I flattened the back edge for scraping ferro rods and other crafty things I've seen people with more talent accomplish.

So, there you have it. The Bolocrafter or how to screw-off in the garage in the evenings and make a thing.