Thread: Martindale No. 2 Golok - review and comparison

Hi I thought I would do a review of another Golok, although this is a review of the Martindale I will at times compare it to the Svord, which I have already reviewed.

First off this is a British company and the steel is milled and hot rolled in England, from there the blades are stamped out, they are then sent to Thailand to be ground into shape, then they are sent back to England where the wooden handles (made of German beech wood) and cut and fitted, sheaths and a file (to keep the blade sharp) added and then sold to the public and supplied to the British Army - every serving soldier gets one - although pilots get a shorter version, the model I am reviewing has a 13 inch blade and is the same model that has been made and supplied to british troops for the last 65 years...

There are imitations out there too - even for such a cheap item there are knock offs - it should come with a Crocodile stamped into the blade along with the words Martindale No_2 Regd in England on one side, and an arrow with numbers on the other side, if new it should also have a sticker with the Union Jack, a picture of a crocodile and Ralph Martindale (England) Limited Quality Guaranteed, along with a bunch of numbers and letters, and a barcode, if it does not have ALL of that its a cheap chinese knockoff, buyer beware.

I bought mine from Reloaders in Onehunga, and it comes without a sheath or file for the super cheap price of $39, which is about 1/5 the price of a Svord Golok - the Svord does come with a good quality leather sheath mind you. So read on to see if this is 1/5 of the tool the Svord is.

Specs wise, the total weight is 566 grams (The Svord is 600 grams), the total length is 46 cm long, the blade being 32.8 cm with the cutting edge being 30 cm, the choil takes up 2.8 cm and the handle takes up 13 cm.

The steel is high carbon and good stuff, its not 1095, its a bit softer, not exactly sure what but still nice steel, and is 4 mm thick, tapering to 3 mm at the end, the blade is almost full tang, the last couple of cm are just wood with a hole drilled through for a wrist thong, I do not believe that effects the strength or quality though.



First off the blade is blunt - now if you have read any of my other reviews you may have picked up I am a little anal about sharpness - and if I say something is blunt others may be perfectly happy with it, but this is really blunt, how blunt? so blunt that I held it by the blade because I was more worried that I would cut myself on the handle than the blade, because the handle is also horrible.
So far pretty damming right, but read on...
Giving up on the bade for now I decided to do something about the handle. Its German Beech, which is probably similar to the Beech we get in the south island and is actually a nice, if a little plain, handle material, the problem is that the handle appear to have been sliced most of the way through with a circular saw as there is a big gap behind the end of the the tang and the handle - also the wood protrudes above the metal leaving shape edges, and the handle has been riveted with aluminium or cheap metal rivets and done quite roughly leaving holes in the wood - all in all the handle is a bit nasty- if I had the skills I probably would remove it and make a new one out of micarta or a nice piece of native wood, but I don't, what I do have is sandpaper and a dremel!

Well lots of sanding and expoxying the holes with epoxy mixed with sawdust mixed with it, curing , dremeling and more sanding I had a nice comfortable handle, I reshaped it a little, filled all the gaps, rounded it and smoothed it, put in a paracord loop into the wrist hole and also reshaped the choil a little, then I waxed it and discovered that it has a really nice sheen once waxed - all in all I am really happy with it. Its comfortable, fits my hand well and there are no hot spots when using it. Good handle (took about 3 days).

Next I was worried about the lack of a sheath, now I am no HGD, but I had a bit of leather and a few rivets and knocked up a quick and nasty sheath to hold it in, maybe one day I will get HGD to make me a nice one (you listening dude?).

Now the blade, like I said it was bunt, all there really was was a very rough grind of where one should be, and it was rough and nasty, almost like it had been gouged out by rocks rubbing against each other, and was quite shallow with a big shoulder, all in all it was bloody awful. I would have a hard time cutting soft butter.

So I placed it in a vice and went to work with sandpaper - I could have used the dremel but I was worried about the heat changing the temper so sandpaper on a stick was my choice. I slowly first reduced the shoulder and started to remove the smallest of the gouges, I was using 220 grit sandpaper and it clogged quite often so I went through a lot in about five days, but by then I had got a fairly decent profile and edge on it, about half of the gouges were gone, the deepest ones were still there but less obvious - I may still keep working on it until all of them are gone but I wanted to get and edge on it to test it - besides its meant to be a working blade not a show piece.
Three days on the Spyderco edge maker going from rough to fine to ultra fine out a hair shaving sharp edge on it; next I had to test it!
Test one: some steak that I was making into a stew, it was not the best fillet by any means, quite tough with fat and gristle but perfect for slicing and slow cooking - well just the weight of the blade sliced through it like a hot knife through butter - no effort needed at all, it cut better than my best kitchen knives (probably because of the weight), I was seriously both surprised and impressed, then it sliced and diced onions no problem as well, carrots yup, herbs no problem.
Test two: bit more utilitarian - can it strike sparks off of a firestarter - yes.
Test three: will it carve feather sticks - yes, no problem, in fact having a choil allows you to choke up on the blade and get some fine detail done, the Svord has no choil...
Test four: battoning, no problem at all ate up big bits of season pine.
Test five: delimbing, pops the branches off without a problem.
Test six (the big one): will it chop, in a word yes it does, chops well too, maybe because its slightly lighter, or because of the handle but there is a touch more vibration coming through the blade and passed onto the Handle that the Svord, not enough to be uncomfortable but enough to notice.
After all of this the blade was still hair shaving sharp.

So how is it in comparison to the Svord which is five times the price, is it 1/5 as good? No its better than that - it does not have a sheath, and straight out of the box its a piece of crap junk that needs a lot of work to turn it into something respectable, but you can do it without special tools, just some sandpaper and hard graft and you have a very respectable blade - its a tad longer and lighter than the Svord, it actually feels a touch more "alive" in the hand and it has very slightly more curve to the blade, however its a lot narrower where the blade meets the choil - which is where I imagine the blade could snap if stressed enough (this would probably be classified as abuse), you get a wood handle that could rot or snap whereas the micarta on the Svord is practically indestructible, and the steel is good stuff- but its not Swedish L6 specially tempered and the had a convex edge put on it by Svord, but its good carbon steel (note needs to be kept oiled or waxed to it will rust or patina) which takes a great edge with a little effort.
Finally its a tool that gets issued, and has been issued for the last 65 years, to the British army, and if anyone is hard on their kit its a soldier, I doubt they would still be issued if it was a piece of junk - so saying I imagine if any soldier got offered the Svord instead they would jump at one.
So is it as good as the Svord Golok? no, is it as good for the price - probably - if you want a good solid Golok and are prepared to out in a little effort then for $39 you can get a fabulous tool (without a sheath), our you can fork out the best part of $200 and get the Svord, I have both and the Svord will be my go to tool, but the Martindale will be a happy back up and a tool to use around the house.
Note I work for neither Martindale or Svord, and do not get paid for these reviews, I just like to share my thoughts with people who may appreciate it.

Next I intend to do a review on my Kukri, say tuned...

Oh, by the way, if someone is keen on getting a Martindale, but does not know how, or have the time to turn one into a good tool, then I may be able to help - I am no master craftsman by any stretch of the imagination, but I know which side of the sandpaper is rough...

Shelley

Great review Shelly....ive got this piece of kit, its cheap but does the job......

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