Sharpening Cold Steel Machetes

I've sharpened several of these machetes that I bought during the 4th of July sale. I've been using a Spyderco Sharpmaker. At first it seemed a little awkward because I usually use it to sharpen a 4" blade instead of a 12" or 18" blade, but with a little practice it works ok. I do have to clean the stones a lot more often than when sharpening smaller blades.

I found that one of these machetes had a consistent edge over the entire length of the blade and it sharpened up easily over the whole blade. Two others had dull spots 2" or 3" long on them. On one barong style the dull spot was in the middle of the curve a few inches back from the tip. On a sax style the dull spot was about 3" nearest the handle.

I think they just weren't ground consistently along the edge. With a bit of work they sharpen up nicely. For the price these can't be beat, but I would really like to have a Marine Corpman's knife. I just haven't wanted to spend the ~$100 to get one.

Sorry, no pics at this point. I've been too lazy or busy to take any.