Vaquero machete

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by AHite

Thanks for the information! Great examples you have there. Any good guess as to the age of my machete? It seems that at some point in time the Mexican craftsmen turned from carving horn to carving aluminum to create figures on the pommel, especially on the tourist Bowie knives I have come across. I don't know if this happened post WWII with the easier access to aluminum.

Thank you for the kind words
Without hands on handling it is hard to estimate age, but Mexican artisans kept their craft going well through the 20th c. and the traditions remained imbued in the work. My guess would be WWII period but the charro in Mexico prevailed through much longer even to today (much in the way cowboys remain true to form here in Texas). Woodward (1946) well described the charro remaining through Mexico in his "Swords of California and Mexico in the 18th and 19th Centuries" with interviews with a Mexican charro he had done.
Interesting note on the carved aluminum!

Attached is my Bowie found in Tucson a number of years ago traveling through, clearly Mexican made with cactus hilt (the scabbard I added). The cactus is like items I have seen WWII era from Mexican border regions.