WatersEdge

Hi Gents,

Some time ago I posted an Excel calculator that did all these calculations for you.

I dug in my files and found it, attached here.

There is a lot of faulty information floating around Thailand about water.

Some of it comes to the surface here.

If more questions than answers arise on the use of the spreadsheet,

send me an email at [email protected]

With a given gravity static head 3.0 meters

660 meters is a long pipe....

If it has no bends, you presently get 22 liters / minute from 1.5 inch

You will get 135 liters/minute from 3"

I get that from changing the flow rate in the yellow cell, D11

then looking at the friction head figure in row 29

Change the decimal places from 0 to 2, so you can see the result changes exactly.

Irrigation__Calculator_20090927.xls

Hi Gents,

Some time ago I posted an Excel calculator that did all these calculations for you.

I dug in my files and found it, attached here.

There is a lot of faulty information floating around Thailand about water.

Some of it floats to the surface here.

If more questions than answers arise on the use of the spreadsheet,

send me an email at [email protected]

I've been in the US for a year and a half, and have a look over here on rare occasion.

Water Flow is in fact so easy that it barely qualifies as Engineering,

but if you don't have a clear handle on the rudiments

your conclusions also will be amiss.

I heard a lot of laughable nonsense in my 7 years farming in Thailand.

Things like you start with a small hose at full pump pressure,

then bump up to a larger pipe after the pressure is poor.

I advised potato farmers to double their profits on a crop simply by using 4" Pipe instead of 1.5inch

and to change to permanent set impact sprinklers rather than spray spinners on a bamboo stick.

To no avail, they continued to toss B200,000 per crop to profit loss, and were never happier than at harvest time,

Ammonium Sulfate 21-0-0+24S

provides lower soil pH when the plant picks up the Nitrogen,

leaving the Sulfate behind,

It costs around B400 per 50kg bag.

Not all fertilizer stores carry it because Thailand soil is typically acidic.

Limestone base soils have a high pH, where it becomes necessary.

Most plants require a little Sulfur, so if the soil is completely depleted,

you will see a dramatic improvement

Sulfuric Acid is also readily available...if you want instant results.

I found that 98% Sulfuric Acid is cheaper than 50%...one of those strange facts in the world.

If you want to pay the high price, Phosphoric Acid is more useful to the plant

while lowering the pH until it is consumed.

There are aquatic and soil species of Ipomoea with very similar characteristics.

Interestingly enough, they are related to Sweet Potato, Ipomoea batata if memory serves correctly.

The farm shops sell seed for the soil species.

As I recall the seed is restricted in the US.

It may have something to do with the seed being toxic or hallucenogenic?

Ammonium Sulfate is available in Thailand.

You will see it sold as 21-0-0 + 24S

Not all the fertilizer shops carry it,

but it was cheap when I bought it,

as I recall B400 per bag.

I liked it on limestone based soil which has high pH

because it lowers the pH when the plant takes up the Nitrogen,

leaving the Sulfate behind.

It also is good for high sulfur requirement crops,

such as Sugar Cane.

Not every soil needs pH lowered,

and not every crop needs a lot of Sulfur

Rice does not need a lot of sulfur,

but if sulfur is completely depleted from the soil,

the Rice will not yield well.

A little bit of Sulfur can make a huge difference in Rice.

On limestone soil,

the sulfate reacts on the limestone to form gypsum

which remains available to the plant until it slowly leaches below the root zone.

Some time ago there was a thread on Fertilizers on this forum,

initiated from a member who wanted to know prices in different regions of Thailand

on which I posted an Excel spreadsheet to calculate this and that,

comparing component costs from bag prices of the common NPK formulas.

The responses above are accurate...go with it.

If you have further questions...I'm ready with the answers,

even though nowadays I'm far far away in the oil field at Williston, North Dakota.

No need to cut and burn...

just leave them standing.

Natural decay will knock them down while you are gone.

Goats will eat around the dry stalk without any problem.

It's better to avoid burning anything on the field,

as the natural material holds moisture on top of the soil

I had soil and water tests done at Chiang Mai University,

I think it was Department of Soils and Water

This does not do you much good in other regions of the country,

but gives a general idea of what Thailand universities offer.

It was around B450 for each of the farm soil tests I wanted....

slightly more if you wanted tests run for additional nutrient elements.

I remember being surprised at how cheap it was.

I also got exact analysis of rock samples to determine mining value

at the Department of Geology.

The cost for X-Ray Fluorescence test was around B1,900 per sample.

I'd just work with an entirely different drive train,

leaving the iron buffalo body and transmission out of your plan.

Don't adapt something that is not in any way suited to the application.

There are a lot of home made pickup trucks powered by Kubota and Yanmar engines.

Building a tractor in a similar fashion is just an adaptation of size and tire type.

I'd suggest hydraulic drive, as it gives you very fine control of motion,

although it does sacrifice mechanical efficiency.

For maneuverability there is no way to beat hydrostatic drive.

Consider the skid steer loader principle...those things do the impossible

I should think that Thailand is entirely ready for a miniature skid steer

based on the Kubota RT-140DI fourteen horsepower engine.

Having run a Gehl 6635 some years ago, selling it to a friend who still runs it every day,

I can suggest that as the ultimate design, even though it's been in existence for around 15 years.

It has an 85 hp Deutz Oil Cooled 4 cylinder turbo diesel....a very nice engine.

Hi Smithson and friends,

It is my understanding that legume innoculants are host species specific.

Yes...say that one three times fast...I'm rather tongue tied to start with.

The only name that comes to mind is the Soybean nitrogen fixing bacteria Bradyrhizobium japonicum.

Pick a legume...it has a bacterial partner,

which if not introduced in some way to a field missing it

cannot magically appear by random.

From a bit on the seed, or from a carrying live plant from another field, or by cultured material

or even dry roots from another field could be expected to "infect" in a positive way, the soil.

Think of innoculant bacteria as similar to yeast, just with a different purpose.

Just as there are species of yeast, there also are many species of legume innoculant.

I note and point out in your statement...some species have nodules and some do not.

This bears evidence of my point.

Your soil is already infected with the bacteria species for the nodulized plants,

but not yet infected for the non-nodulized species.

I asked my Thailand fertilizer dealer some years ago to find B. japonicum,

and she did find it at an Ag University,

but it's been far too long ago for me to remember which University.

I'm now in the US,

where many things are more available,

if the crops happen to be common to US agriculture

Soybean, Pinto Bean, Alfalfa, Peanut...to quickly list the majors

An interesting related topic is that some plants not technically legumes,

apparently have a symbiotic relationship with bacteria,

causing the pair of them to fix nitrogen

I'm admittedly in over my head on this topic,

but once I was soundly corrected when I said Sweet Potato is a legume.

It is NOT a legume, but there is a symbiosis which has the same effect.

Don't ask me to elaborate, the man who corrected me I wish was available to teach us now.

Some years ago I bought a fence shock unit at the small electric / hardware supply shop in Mae Sot.

I think it cost B400.

Operated on either 12VDC or 230VAC.

I ran it on house line current 230VAC,

and it did just fine for many months.

At the time I bought it, I said to myself,

For this cheap, Why do they bother to charge money?

The only thing I know beyond this is that it was

Burgundy color plastic shell about the size of a tissue box.

Come to think of it, not sure tissue box is a descriptive term for Thailand

10x15x20 cm

Glyphosate will get it, as it's known by it's technical name in Thailand

Roundup in the outside world, by it's original brand name.

You need green leaf to absorb the chemical spray.

That may be a problem now in dry hot March.

Spray in the early morning when dew is on the leaf.

It takes about four days for its effect to be fully known.

For so many people trying to get Sugar to grow,

this is the first problem I've heard of needing to kill it.

This tells me that the plowing method probably works suitably.

But it's a grass like any other, Roundup will knock it out first round.

A heavy disk plow will break even the dry surface

enough to make life miserable for the dry sugar

With the surface broken,

and the remaining roots below damaged, they will die.

If you then plow deeply again when rains return, you'll get the survivors.

Hi kwonitoy & slapout

Looking at some farm equipment auctions this morning,

four sample items may provide ideas for comparison

listed from large high capacity to small light duty.

H&S Ground Contact Drive Wheel Rake on Folding Hitch Pull Cart

http://www.rbauction.com/hs-hd-ii-18-ft-twin-bar?invId=3291626&id=ci

This is the closest to what my father builds on a three point hitch design.

Vermeer Hydraulic Drive Basket Rake with Folding Frame

http://www.rbauction.com/vermeer-r2800-8-ft-hydraulic?invId=3291629&id=ci

New Holland PTO Drive Three Point Basket Rake

http://www.rbauction.com/new-holland-57-8-ft-3-pt-hitch?invId=3294615&id=ci

New Holland Ground Contact Drive Three Point Rake

http://www.rbauction.com/new-holland-2-wheel?invId=3294616&id=ci

Note that these items are for sale in the 21 March Auction in Albuquerque NM.

Hi Gentlemen,

A dump rake on a three point hitch will be perfect.

I worked on the missing details of a government job a few months ago,

heavy rake tines made from spring steel.

ultimately to be used as a land mine sweeper in Afghanistan

The steps are to buy the spring steel in its annealed form,

relatively soft and workable.

After you have formed and drilled it,

heat to 1525F and quench in oil.

This gives maximum spring resistance and associated hardness.

For various lesser desired mechanical properties

temper between 800 and 1300F

I have no idea where one would buy spring steel raw material in Thailand,

but Admiral Steel is my resource in the US.

The material is 5160 Steel

Specs are available at this link,

http://www.suppliersonline.com/propertypages/5160.asp#Spec

I have the original drawing for those tines,

if you reach the point of fabricating them.

This particular design has one bolt hole punched in the top end,

which then fastens in a bracket to the rake frame.

A few weeks ago there was a thread here about machetes and field brush blades.

This 5160 is also what you would use for a very sturdy knife.

Hi kwonitoy,

Are you referring to my idea of shipping equipment from the US?

You want a hay rake brought over?

My Dad builds a Category II three-point hitch hay rake.

Wheel rake type.

Finest in the hay business,

Rakes 32 feet of alfalfa into one windrow from two 16 foot swather windrows.

Fast as well as very gentle on the hay leaves.

Haven't seen a heavy enough application for it in Thailand.

There are of course lighter duty hay rakes that might rake rubber leaves cheaper.

It may be of interest to mention.

I'm presently importing heavy construction equipment.

A farm tractor here and there would just ride along in the spare room of a container.

Big machine in a big box, with a lot of empty air all around it,

and loads of weight capacity to burn.

Ditto for various difficult to source farm materials

Hi andycrosby

Newborns must have Colostrum,

the thick orange colored milk which the cow gives the first four days after birth.

Without those antibodies in the infant calf's system,

it is wide open to every disease to pass by.

Colostrum shares all the antibodies that the mother possesses straight to her offspring.

There is milk replacer available, as slapout says, but it is expensive.

It may be helpful to note that bagged feed for small pigs has whey powder included,

so milk protein necessary for a small animal is probably cheaper in that form.

Raising dairy bull calves has always been a struggle,

because the dairy doesn't need males,

and yet the baby bulls need their mama.

Once on solid feed, a Holstein bull is a vigorous beast,

although when they reach maturity they are aggressive and at times sneaky.

Never Never Never turn your back on a Holstein bull.

They are lean flesh,

and peak out for slaughter at 18 months

We didn't cut them

as bulls grow better than steers

but we also had the heavy pipe and sucker rod corrals to withstand their abuse.

Heavy cable on pipe posts works even better for bull corrals,

because they can try to abuse it, but it flexes while still strong.

Hi joker7,

Sugar is amazingly resilient.

It wants to live.

Like any hardy plant,

it survives on rough conditions,

to thrive on good conditions.

It loves lots of water,

demands high sulfur content.

If in doubt, add more gypsum.

Sulfur is not clearly understood by a lot of sugar farmers,

which explains disappointing yield.

Pumping from a river is what I did for a long time.

I used

three 4 inch foot valves on

one 4 inch suction line feeding a

3 inch centrifugal pump powered by

14hp Kubota Diesel.

I was pumping 400-500 liters per minute,

depending on the pressure required to reach destination

and the speed of the engine.

A diesel has the advantage of variable speed over an electric,

but it does not run as efficiently at full throttle as it does at 70% throttle.

On low pressure mode, open discharge into fish ponds, I throttled back and let it run all night.

Running sprinklers in the day time I ran it full speed to get good pressure.

You would like to keep the suction line as short as possible,

with as little elevation difference as possible.

Ideally you'd like your pump right at the waters edge.

However, pumps engines don't like to be flooded,

so you have to negotiate with nature.

Friction loss is especially troubling in the suction line,

so you want to remove all possible obstruction to free flow.

Some would say my suction line described above was crazy overkill.

I did it that way for clear reasons, and stand by the design as successful for me.

Watching the sugar farms around me,

had I been them and had plenty of money

I'd have put permanent set PVC sprinkler systems in,

to water it heavily during the dry season.

Why allow the dry season to go to waste when you have river water?

Those hot bright days are just as valuable as rainy season days.

I used impact Sprinklers Super Products RC-160 which I bought at Global House for B95 each.

I put them 1.5 meters above the ground on a two inch riser for stability,

necked down to 3/4 for the final half meter.

I buried the sprinkler line half meter,

so the earth provides stability for the two inch riser.

The size of the sprinkler line is 2" for the last 100 meters of any line,

3" for the next 100 meters,

as the RC-160 puts out around 20 liters per minute,

a relatively high volume sprinkler,

so it requires large enough pipe to carry the total volume.

I spaced sprinkler lines 20 meters on center

Sprinklers 10 meter centers on the line

Offset 5 meters in relation to the adjacent sets.

Running at around 25-30 meters head,

the RC-160 has a 12 meter radius,

which is ideal for the spacing described 20x10 with 5 offset

At a 12 meter radius you also get sufficient spray breakup for consistent pattern.

At low pressure it's a pencil stream with concentrates at the outer circumference.

I mentioned diesel engine, but that was because I had no electricity on that farm.

If you have electricity available, it is much cheaper than diesel.

Energy cost will make or break your operation, so squeeze every last advantage from it.

I tried to show a Potato farmer how to triple his yield

by applying twice the water and three times the fertilizer

on 1/3 the diesel

but he didn't listen.

He still made money the way he did it,

so he was happy enough.

Sugar is also a high water crop as Potato,

so similar numbers apply.

Hi Garrya,

One reason that I was as successful as I was,

on the infeasible small scale we operated

I avoided official contact at all cost.

Didn't ask anyone for anything, just got her done.

As a result, when my associates had continual requests for this contribution and that from the local officials,

I never had one visit,

and never one moment of interference.

They never approached me and I certainly never went looking for them.

Everyone knew exactly who I was and where I could be found.

I was known over the whole area as Chowna Falang (Farmer Foreign)

with perhaps additional adjectives as spice.

The Burmese laborers also knew me far and wide as,

"Englishman",

never mind that I'm American,

all white guys are Englishman to them.

One man I knew not far away did as you propose.

Always consulted with the puyaiban.

His project was continually up against expensive delays,

and ultimately his entire pig barn project was scuttled

on the grounds that the zero effluent elaborate sewer system he planned was not known to anyone local.

The real plan was that the PuYai had a friend with a pig barn for rent...or something like that.

He is the nicest, most conscientious, most eager to do everything the right way

and he was raked over the coals nonstop,

no matter how good a man he is.

His Attorney couldn't / wouldn't help him,

some might observe she even helped skin him.

He was against any unpleasant publicity, so it was nonstop.

The local official may claim to be your path to solutions,

but solutions are not necessary unless there is first a problem created,

an expensive problem typically

I understand they present themselves with silky words initially,

"If there is anything you need help with,

you just come to me and I will make it happen for you."

It's the kiss of death...

the guy does not want to help you in the sense you think.

He wants to help himself to your bankroll.

The two legged ATM as the metaphor goes

Some have called me cynical,

and that's a label I'm wiling to bear,

but I also might be realistically experienced.

Hi Scully,

Too many variables for anyone outside to predict the outcome.

Call the Buyer and tell him to come load your pigs.

Put the money in your pocket and see if anyone is able to take it out.

If you leave the pigs there, you will lose the value.

If you keep the money after selling them, you will gain the value

The maybe factor is in your favor.

If the Police come, to prevent you from recovering your own money,

nothing really lost.

The default setting is to lose the value.

Another post for the Sob Stories thread

which last I looked was many pages extended.

For all those out there considering the future,

Listen to Scully...he's the present case of a thousand others just like him.

Hi Garrya,

Getting a job as a Farm Supervisor in Thailand is not going to happen.

I did what you talk now about for seven years

Minus the Thai Missus and her family

There is no one out there, rich or poor,

who wants to know what a Foreigner thinks,

and even if it was a fabulous idea,

they still would not do what you told them.

I formed my own company, hired a full time farm manager

who in turn hired day laborers,

and we did a great job at a 7 acre place for more than four years.

I could not turn my back and know that things would happen well.

I talked with large farmers,

sharing solid engineering principles to make their operations much more profitable

mainly through the efficient use of irrigation pumps and sprinkler systems

but they never reached the point of putting anything to actual practice.

They still are not anywhere near energy efficiency

but it works in the old way so they are content at that.

The farm manager offered to show the neighbor farmers how we do it,

so that they could simply copy our system.

No one did.

Thailand is a naturally wealthy nation that lives in relative poverty

because they have no desire to know more.

It is my belief via experience that there is no hope for greater things.

The much touted legal prohibition of foreigners working in Thailand is a non issue.

I sweated in the mud and in the sun all those years,

and no one ever cared, much less stopped me.

I clearly declared my purpose, and not even the Labor Department raised a single question.

It was on my Work Permit application and renewal every year.

If you have the funds to be involved in Thailand,

then on an official level, that's what they want to see.

Are you generating Tax Revenues...it's all they want to know.

Just put it on the trees already.

A large portion of the Nitrogen in hog waste is Ammonia in the urine.

When dried in the sun, this evaporates and is lost.

Ammonia at room temperature is a gas.

but it also has a large ability to dissolve in water.

At room temperature the mixture is 30% Ammonia 70% Water.

If the Ammonia is kept in contact with water,

it will remain available to plants along with the water.

So the most effective way to make Nitrogen available to plants is to bury it in wet ground.

The Phosphorous and Potassium is not air volatile.

Drying does not decrease their content.

Potassium in its various chemical compositions is water soluble,

Phosphorous in the form of Phosphoric Acid is water soluble as well.

Since hog waste is acidic, most of the Phosphorous is in Phosphoric Acid.

If animal waste is left exposed to rain, both P and K will be washed into the ground

Dealing with wet waste is a heavy and stinky job.

If you can mix it into slurry,

then distribute it to the trees, allowing the water to percolate into the soil around the trees,

you lose very little of the nutrients.

The possible concern is that excessive Nitrogen will burn the plants.

Trees are durable in this because their roots are deep in the soil.

Plants with roots near the surface are more susceptible to nitrogen burning.

It's always a balance of saving the nutrients, delivering them to the roots, but not harming the plant.

I cleaned my hog barn into a gutter,

which was then flushed directly to the fields

Because there was a lot of water to dilute at it carried the waste,

there was no nitrogen burn.

You mention mixing with Rice Hull.

This consume Ammonia as bacteria feeding on the Ammonia also serve to degrade the Cellulose in the rice hull.

So rice hull does limit the danger of nitrogen burning,

but it doesn't help the plant get available fertilizer.

Rice Hull and Wheat Straw are very effective Ammonia filters for fish farms.

I read a research paper on this, which said

a high 90's percent of Ammonia in fish water was removed

when pumped through a packed bed of rice hull or wheat straw

Trees require Potassium for their physical structure,

which is the same mechanism as in field crop plants.

Potassium is also important in the creation of proteins.

Phosphorous fosters root growth and blossoming.

Nitrogen is responsble for green foliage growth and also in the production of protein

This is a very simplistic summary, because there is crossover in the functions listed,

so understand it for incomplete as it is.

We have a regular contributing member whose screen name shows his connection to trees.

Maybe he has something to say.

I'm coming from the hog barn to field experience.

I cringe when I see perfectly good animal waste in a pile out in the open air.

By the time it is dried, then rained on, it's not actually worth much,

yet it is highly prized for the scant value that remains.

One farmer lamented that he gets more for his cow manure than for his bananas.

Hi Gents,

I own a Thailand made V-Tech RotoTiller powered by a 14hp Kubota Diesel engine.

It is a walk behind two wheel, with iron paddy wheels

It cuts a 1 meter wide swath beautifully.

It is for sale in Mae Sot at B60,000

I paid B30,000 for the machine and B45,000 for the engine new.

I put around 30 hours on the machine.

Replacement Tines are available for around B3,000 per 14 pc set

It is a heavy beast, very cumbersome to load into a pickup truck,

so I also built sturdy steel channel ramps with angle cleats,

which bolt into your truck tailgate mounts.

This makes loading perfectly safe and worry free.

The engine was used also as a water pump engine,

and a Kubota tractor engine,

so the total hours are several hundred.

Every year I was granted the opportunity to rebuild at least one Kubota pump engine,

when it was not pulled from the riverbank high enough to avoid the flood.

So all my Kubota engines are in finely rebuilt condition.

(Grimace with a smile of job well done)

Good news is that a complete rebuild on the Kubota diesels costs B4,000

and you are back to new condition on the inside.

It is a beautiful machine

after I replaced bearings

par for the course with all new Thai equipment coming from the factory with junk bearings

even though high quality sealed Japan replacement bearings are readily available off the shelf.

Photos available at these links, low quality as they are:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwPGvzS9DL-JNmZkYjcxNmEtYTYxZS00OGRjLTllYzAtYTRhZmRlNWEyYzQ3

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwPGvzS9DL-JYjA3YmQyODMtZjA4ZS00MTQ2LWFhMjUtMDQ4YzI0NzM3OTAy

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwPGvzS9DL-JNzg5MDU5NWEtNzM2Zi00ZWQwLTliMWEtZDk1N2ZmNWFhNjRh

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwPGvzS9DL-JNmVjMjEwYzItMDA3YS00ZDUzLTg4Y2UtODQ3MzVjN2Q3Mjgy

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwPGvzS9DL-JZDQyMTRhOGEtYWZmOC00YTJjLTlmZWItNjVkMDBjOTljZjE4

Depth of cut is adjustable from a mere surface scratch to a maximum of 0.25m, 10 inches.

The tines in present wear condition will cut about 0.20m, 8 inches.

The advantage of a rototiller is that it leaves a smooth perfectly prepared surface.

In tall grass, the long stems wad on the rotor,

taking all the fun from the day,

so long stuff has to be slashed and removed from the field first.

It is a physical workout to operate...a high impact gym on wheels you might say.

If the machine is run to full power continually, it will keep 4 men at the edge of exhaustion.

If run at full capacity, it will completely transform half rai per hour.

I'm happy to field questions, and of course would love to transfer ownership.

I built level retention trenches,

starting with a small flow of water and a hoe,

digging a small ditch as the water filled it on contour level.

No need for a clear vinyl hose level, just run water in the open ditch.

It's very easy, if water runs out the low side at any point then it has to be moved uphill a bit.

When the entire length is full of calm water, it's perfect level.

When the path of the small ditch is established,

then a larger trench can be dug.

I initially built them .60m deep and wide.

These big trenches catch all the water that ever falls.

No water escapes, and therefore zero erosion.

Extreme circumstance =>

it held the runoff from a hurricane with no loss or damage.

I ran the daily waste flow from the hog barn into it,

distributing all the waste the full length of the trench.

I also had a steady supply of coconut husk,

which if used to fill a large trench,

would enable large amounts of water to percolate into the soil

while the land area of the trench still being useful to grow plants.

and a large amount of water remaining available to the plants.

Eventually I expanded to perfect level terrace,

which amounts to a shallow but very wide trench.

It is labor intensive, but once built never changes.

I then cut deep furrows on 1 meter centers,

which distributed the hog waste over the entire field area,

rather than on one trench line.

The idea is to retain all rainfall, and enable flow of dry season pumped water.

Even on tight clay soil, a surprisingly large volume of water will soak in,

if you just prevent it from running away.

Clay has a large holding capacity, it just requires time.

I noticed that the King's Project at Doi Muser built level retention trenches on some rather steep hillsides.

The idea is so effective that I'm surprised everyone doesn't do it.

It is not obvious as it may appear.

There was always a steep learning curve for the laborers,

whose minds were made up that ditches are to drain water away.

Holding water on high ground was most certainly a strange foreign concept.

If I turned my attention away, they would revert to their concept.

We dug some trenches more than once, more than twice, because they refused to understand.

If there was sufficient market demand,

I can take your orders for properly manufactured field knives from US spring steel.

Does anyone aspire to be the machete tycoon.

I'm now in the US, with a very good fabrication shop standing by.

I bought some good straight edge machetes in Thailand,

which had a rolled steel handle, of the same material as the blade,

not a piece of pipe welded later

Here in the US I can buy a sheet of spring steel,

CNC cut it to precisely uniform shape,

roll the handle, forge the blade, then heat treat for full hardness,

as mentioned by andrew55 above