Sawmarch Hand Forged 1095 Steel Sawback Machete | 26 Inch Overall | Etched Knotwork Panel and Leather Wrapped Grip with Brown Leather Sheath | Bushcraft Camp Gift | RK-1938

The Sawmarch is a heavy camp blade with a broad straight edge, an angled chisel style tip and a run of deep hooked saw teeth cut into the spine. A short steel guard separates the blade from a brown leather wrapped grip, and a panel of etched knotwork sits on the flat just ahead of the guard. It comes with a stitched brown leather sheath. At 26 inches overall it is closer to a short sword than to a garden machete, and it is built to be swung.

Sawbacked blades have a real military history. Prussian pioneer sidearms of the nineteenth century, the Faschinenmesser, carried a saw along the spine so an engineer could cut fascines and clear obstacles with the same tool he wore on his belt. The type was controversial enough that some armies withdrew it, and it is a good reminder that the saw on a blade like this is a genuine working feature rather than a styling detail. This one is forged, ground, heat treated and finished in the Czech Republic.

The sawback spine and the long belly do two different jobs, and the guide to blade shapes covers what each shape is for. Interlace of this kind was the standard decorative language of the period, and the symbols guide covers the patterns that keep coming back. For heavier bush work the tracker knives take a similar beating.

Specifications

What a sawback is actually good for

Honest answer first. A saw cut into the spine of a chopping blade will never be as fast as a proper bow saw, and anyone telling you otherwise has not tried to fell a six inch log with one. The teeth are short, the blade is thick behind them, and there is no set to the teeth to clear a wide kerf, so the cut binds in seasoned hardwood.

What it is genuinely good at is a narrower set of jobs. Notching green wood for a shelter frame or a pot hanger is quick, because green fibre clears easily. Cutting a groove to start a controlled split is much easier with teeth than with an edge. Stripping bark and cutting through fibrous material such as rope, webbing, thin sheet aluminium and packing crate ply is what these teeth do best. On the Sawmarch the teeth are hooked rather than triangular, which means they cut on the pull stroke, so you draw the blade back toward you and let the hooks bite rather than pushing away like a carpenter’s saw.

The angled tip is the other feature people ask about. Cutting the point off at a slant does three things. It moves mass forward so the blade chops harder for its weight, it gives you a broad, strongly supported corner that can be driven into wood or used as a scraper, and it removes the fine point that is the usual failure spot on a long blade used as a lever. It is the same logic that produced the Japanese nata and the machete tips used across Southeast Asia.

1095 high carbon steel at chopping hardness

The blade is 1095 hardened and tempered to 54 to 58 HRC. For a chopping tool that band is not a compromise, it is the target. A blade that is going to be swung into wood and occasionally into something harder than wood needs to bend and come back rather than chip, and taking 1095 higher would trade toughness away for edge retention that a machete does not need.

The blade is flat ground with a convex secondary bevel at the edge. A convex edge is stronger than a flat one at the same angle because there is more steel immediately behind the cutting line, and it also glances out of a cut rather than sticking, which is what you want when the blade is moving fast.

The etched knotwork panel above the guard is bitten into the steel after polishing, so it sits below the surface. It is placed on the ricasso flat, which is the one part of a working blade that never touches the material being cut, so nothing about the decoration weakens the tool.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel, the leather or the wood. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it, so runes on the ricasso take the place of the existing knotwork panel. The leather of the sheath can also be stamped, which is the usual choice when someone wants a name on a camp tool without marking the steel. See the engraving page.

Handling and balance

Balance sits about five inches ahead of the guard, which is forward for a blade this length and deliberately so. A machete wants its weight out in the blade because the cut is driven by momentum rather than by pressure. Hold it near the butt of the grip and let it swing rather than gripping tight and forcing it, and it will do most of the work for you.

The six inch grip is long enough to move the hand back for reach or forward for control. Wrapped leather grips well in a wet hand and will darken where you hold it, which is normal and makes the tool easier to index over time.

This is a sharp working tool with a real edge. It is not a toy, it is not a display prop and it is not sparring equipment. Keep a clear arc around you, watch where the blade will go if it glances, and never swing it toward a hand holding the workpiece.

Care

Dry the blade every time it comes back from the field. Sap and green wood are acidic and 1095 will show a grey patina quickly, which is harmless, but standing moisture in the saw teeth will turn into red rust and the teeth are the hardest part to clean up. Push a rag through the gullets and get oil into them.

Keep a light film of mineral oil on the whole blade between uses. Touch the edge up on a coarse stone or a file rather than a fine finishing stone, because a camp blade wants a slightly toothy edge rather than a polished one. Do not store the blade in the sheath for months at a time, and feed the leather twice a year with a neutral balm. Our steel care page covers the routine for plain high carbon steel as well as pattern welded.

When the edge goes dull, sharpening on a whetstone covers the angle and the pressure.

Made in the Czech Republic

This piece is made by hand in the Czech Republic, in a workshop that still works the old way. The steel is forged, ground, heat treated and finished by smiths who learned the trade from the people before them, and the wood, horn and leather are cut and fitted by hand rather than pressed out on a line. That is also why no two pieces come out exactly the same.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We import these pieces ourselves, check every one when it lands and ship from our warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee. Engraving is done here in the United States after the piece arrives, so your runes or your own design go on before it leaves for you.

A note on handmade variation

This machete is hand made rather than machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. The saw teeth are cut and filed by hand and their spacing will not be perfectly uniform, the etched panel varies in tone, and the leather on the grip and sheath differs in grain and colour from hide to hide. The length, the steel, the heat treat and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Will the saw actually cut wood?

It will notch and groove green wood well and it will cut rope, webbing and thin sheet easily. It is not a substitute for a bow saw in seasoned hardwood and we would rather say so than oversell it.

Which way do the teeth cut?

On the pull stroke. The hooks face back toward the handle, so you draw the blade toward you and let them bite rather than pushing forward.

Is it sharp out of the box?

Yes, it arrives with a working convex edge ready to chop. Ask in the order notes if you would prefer it shipped unsharpened.

Can I baton with it?

Light batoning through green or softwood is within what the blade will take. Do not baton on the toothed section of the spine, because striking the teeth will damage them and can chip the hardened steel.

Does the sheath have a belt loop?

The sheath is a stitched leather body shaped to the blade. It is built to be carried in a pack or hung on a lashing rather than worn on a trouser belt, since a 26 inch blade on the hip is awkward on foot.

How long before it ships?

One to two weeks of processing, then free United States shipping with tracking.

What is in the box

• One Sawmarch sawback machete in 1095 high carbon steel
• One stitched brown leather sheath shaped to the blade
• A protective film of oil on the blade for transit
• Care notes for high carbon steel and leather
• Lifetime warranty against defects in forging, grind, heat treat and fittings
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

Other working blades: machetes, short swords, Viking seaxes and scabbards and sheaths. Background reading lives in the guides.