Will carrying a machete or axe on the bike cause problems with police ?
 

Hey.

Without this turning into the gun thread im after some advice.

Im planning on camping and travelling through South America. Argentina to Colombia to be precise and spending most of my time camping.

Well, for bush craft I like to use a small machete or a small forest axe. I would like to carry this strapped onto the OUTSIDE side of my luggage box (but concealed on the inside next to the wheel)

To me these are only tools and are never to be used in anger and I belive that they are also everyday tools in South America.

Will the police be bothered ??

Thanks.

Never had a problem.
 

Hee Ted,

I never had a problem and many (mostly customs) officials have seen my machette.
But, I always had it strapped to a luggage-roll on the back, so not ready for grabs...
As you say yourself, it's just a camping-tool.
Only in Australia they made some comments... it had some dirt on it :oops2:
They almost wanted to quarentine it :nono:

Maarten:mchappy:

Hi
I carried a large machete from northen Mexico to the bottom of Argentina, it was strapped on my bike in full view, in all the time i had it i had no problems, mind you one Chilen customs guy told me not to take in to a night clubs...... I used it for camping, very handy. Skip

whooo
 

I'm unsure of going to this UK meeting - do i need to come tooled up lol

I dont think ill be needed it at the UK HU meet :)

"To hack or not to hack..."
 

A very valid question, one I am pondering myself. In his book Traveling South, Dr. Greg Frasier suggests a machete (and ax if I remember correctly) as required camping tools, whereas Chris Scott in his book recommends against it. I think I'll pack a hacker after reading MMarten's comment. We'll see how far it gets...

In my opionion, a small axe is more use at a campsite than a machete.

1) Axes stay sharper MUCH longer
2) They look less intimidating
3) They can be used as mallets (on the back)
4) Much easier to chop firewood with.

Still, its a case of preferance.

If I can recommend an axe, it would have to be Gransfors..

Gränsfors Bruks

The Wildlife axe for light campsite work or the Small forest axe for slightly heavier work.

For machete's, You cant go wrong with these.

eBay.co.uk: 20" HEAVY DUTY CARBON STEEL BUSH CUTTER MACHETE (item 320109635109 end time 11-May-07 08:23:00 BST)

Never felt the need myself, a normal swiss army knife/leatherman is pretty much all you really need for camping and I`ve made plenty fires on my trip, breaking up firewood with my boots etc and for a hammer, I use my large vise/mole grip pliers which is very handy for hitting things with.

However I was actually quite tempted to get one recently after I met a Russian on a 1200gs going round the world who had a machette strapped to his pannier- it was apparently very handy for warding off the numerous little kids at border crossings!

The police here wouldn`t bother I don`t think. Its a common sight to see young men wandering the streets wearing baseball caps and carrying a machette but if I saw that in Scotland, I`d probably run a mile!

ps you can buy them for next to nothing in the markets here

In my four months travelling through C.America and Colombia, meeting people carrying macheties? was a VERY common sight. This is reguarded as a nesesary tool in all the jungle lowlands and mountains. You see different design sheaths in diferent areas, and in some places it almost apears that the boys receive them with coming of age. I'm confident you will have no problems :)

Anywhere you want to make a fire, you'll find fallen deadwood which is very breakable, as Mike says. After two years of camping in the states, someone gave me an axe/hatchet. It's still never been used. Anywhere in Central America there's monkeys, they tend to send an avalanche of deadwood falling from the trees. And anywhere there's tons of jungle where you would need a machete to cut through, it's probably going to be too wet to actually light it. My two cents....
Lorraine

i´ve been carrying a machete for the past 9 months / 19 countries and never had a problem with the cops. they might ask you what you needed it for and you have an answer. i carry it on the bag that goes on top of my panniers behind myself. it is easy to reach and hard to see. personally i have never used it except for my jungle trip in guatemala.