You may recall seeing Manu Toigo on the show “Naked and Afraid”. After an 8-year stint in the Australian Army, Manu spent several years recovering from injuries. During this period of recovery and self-discovery she found herself in acting school. After a student exchange in Seattle, she emigrated to the US and spent some time in the contract training world as a role player and instructor in scenario based training. This parlayed into some private investigation and personal protection work.
Eventually, she ended up on the show, “Naked and Afraid” in a jungle scenario, in Panama, leveraging the survival skills she learned growing up. On this episode, she used an Ontario machete. Based on this experience she was determined to create something more versatile than that single use instrument. This is what she has come up with.
Offered in 18″ and 24″ models, the Manu Toigo Signature Series Survival Machetes are manufactured from 1070 High Carbon Steel with either G10 or Micarta handles. The design incorporates several features Manu wishes she would have had at hand during her Panamanian adventure including a saw, gut hook and lash points which come in handy when using the hook to retrieve flora from trees.
Manu is still getting this project off the ground and so far she only has custom, low-rate production models. In order to get this into full production, she is looking for viable contacts in the following areas:
– A production knife sheath maker, producing Kydex and Nylon sheaths.
– US Based machine shop with blade making capability.
– Manufacturer of phenolic laminate like G10, including maker of production knife scales in OD Green, Coyote and Camo.
– Saw and or knife blade manufacturer.
Email: info@panaceax.com
panaceax.com/shop/precision-tools/sm18-survival-tool
Tags: Blade Show 2014, Manu Toigo
http://www.anzmi.net/index.php/stolen-valour?pid=62&sid=402:Toigo
Things are not quite what they seem
Pretty interesting read. Would like to see what the Stolen Valor guys could come up with.
http://www.anzmi.net/index.php/stolen-valour?pid=62&sid=402:Toigo
The machetes are pretty cool though, they look very well thought out.
Thanks for that. I didn’t hear any of that from her. The background was presented just as I relayed it.
Somehow reminds me some pieces of equipment, quite popular among the Russian weekend warriors. Look for “machete Taiga” in any image search engine and you’ll see what I mean.
There’s another one. Nobody design another machete ! The Russians already did it.
Whats the pointy protrusion just forward of the guard designed for?
It’s a fish gutter.
I was too slow to post the same article. I had a friend who dated her and that website is true. It’s a shame that she feels the need to pretend to be something she is not. That’s the funny thing about the internet; it’s a lot harder to hide lies these days.
Seriously? Your ‘friend’ was misled by a woman who told him that she was a super commando and he went to bed with her and now regrets it? Only in America. Maybe your ‘friend’ should come out and speak for himself. In fact, both of you. If you are going to accuse someone of something like that, you need to man up and stand behind your words.
Nah, not really. he dated her when she was a dental assistant in the Army actually. And as you can imagine, for obvious reasons a lot of people won’t just blurt out their entire CV on a blog. I appreciate your distrust of every random post that people write, but it was a surprise to him also when he saw it on ANZMI because he thought she was ok (a little full on, but what girl isn’t). What I was getting at, was that it was true that she was a dental assistant and did not have the operational experience or the “training SAS” that she later claimed. Don’t be so quick to assume the tone of the comment. There’s a difference between an accusation and flat out fact. But I get that being a blog, it’s just another unsubstantiated comment (or accusation) so I’ll give you the run down next time I see you and you will understand.
My name is Bob Weir former owner of ACE LTD. aluminum rifle stocks. I designed all the products on the ACE website including the M4SOCOM and the famous ARFX etc. http://www.aceltdusa.com
OK, let’s get this straight. The SM18 and SM24, Survival Machetes are my invention. I have a patent pending on it. I designed it, fabricated the prototypes and tested it thoroughly. I contracted with Manu to help me promote it. I am a life-long survivalist and trained in primitive skills, and have many survival quests under my belt, and I thought it would help me to get the SM’s out there by using Manu, a celebrity survivalist, to help promote it.
The SM18 and SM24 are completely different from any other machete, because it has a “spur knife”. My new company is called Panacea X, http://www.panaceax.com, Please visit my website to read my blog about the design i have worked on perfecting for years, the SM18 & 24. My Blog about the design should be posted in 24hrs. The “the pointy thing at the bottom” is the “spur knife”. Basically it allows the operator to do the precision cutting, piercing and carving of a small knife well still having the power and efficiency of a highly efficient, saw back machete. It is my answer to the question, “If you could only have one knife in a survival situation what would you pick?” My answer the SM24.
In Manu’s defense, from what i understand is, Manu never claimed to be Special Forces. She has trained extensively with active and retired SF. Interviewers have misconstrued what she said, and thus the accusations.
How does this imposter keep showing up? The only thing I recall is her lies, lies and more lies to get her into these industries. Absolutely shameful.
Looks more like mall ninja stuff. Trying to too do too many things which require different types of blades . It end up doing nothing well . You need to pick what functions you really want the knife to do.