Product Review: Cold Steel Barong Machete

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Cold Steel Barong Machete

The Barong is a traditional design that is used all throughout Southeast Asia. Normally it is used as an agricultural tool, but is also used in traditional Filipino Martial Arts. Many employees at Cold Steel, including the founder and president Lynn C. Thompson, are practitioners of Filipino Martial Arts, so they created this interpretation of the classic design out of their admiration for this fighting style.

Cold Steel Barong Machete blade

As machetes go, this is on the large side. The blade is a full 18″ of 1055 carbon steel. This is a super tough tool steel, perfect for high impact work where strength and durability are required. It has a high carbon content, which does make it more susceptible to corrosion and staining than a stainless steel. Cold Steel have seen fit to try and counter this by baking on a black powder coating – this means that only the very edge of the blade is exposed lessening the overall chances of a stained and corroded blade.

As a bushcraft tool or camp companion, this is the perfect tool. It’s heavyweight enough at 24oz to tackle those really tough jobs – chopping, snedding, batoning – the Cold Steel Barong would easily handle pretty much whatever you threw at it.

The leaf shaped blade has a large curving belly with a pretty much full length edge that would be great for cutting and slicing. Normally a new machete has a ‘working edge’ – that is an edge that needs some initial work if you want to make it really sharp – but the Cold Steel Barong has a decently sharp blade, straight out of the box. It holds an edge well, so bringing it up to an acceptable sharpness and keeping it there should be easy enough.

Cold Steel Barong Machete in the hand

In the hand, the Cold Steel Barong Machete feels really substantial but not too heavy. The handle has a pleasant curve so that this large chopper can be held in a number of ways, depending on what it is being used for. The curve of the handle helps greatly with the momentum of chopping, helping to make the chopping action more efficient.

Cold Steel Barong Machete handle

The end of the handle features a handy lanyard hole and the shape flares out, to prevent the machete from slipping through the hand on a downward swing. The super tough polypropylene has a textured finish for extra grip in all conditions, and it shouldn’t rot, crack or split.

Cold Steel Barong Machete in its sheath

The sheath provided with the Cold Steel Barong Machete is made from (Cor-Ex) Cordura which is a really tough woven nylon. The base of the sheath features a polypropylene cap for added protection and to prevent the sharp tip from piercing the sheath.

This is a really practical, tough all round chopping tool. It would be at home clearing brush and chopping wood. It would definitely be a worthwhile addition to any camp set up. It’s large enough and strong enough to tackle just about any tough camp task and the low price belies just hoe effective a tool this really is.


As chopping tools go, this is one of the best you can get for the money. Super tough materials coupled with a tried and tested design make for a great all rounder. You would not be disappointed with the Cold Steel Barong machete, it’s a really nice tool that should last you for a long time with just some basic maintenance.