Clearing vegetation. A machete is a long, thin, relatively soft blade that cuts green growth with momentum rather than sharpness: brush, vines, cane, saplings and undergrowth. It is a chopping and slashing tool, not a knife, and it is deliberately made softer than one.
A machete is run at a low hardness, often around 48 to 54 HRC, precisely so it bends rather than snapping when it hits something hard. Chrome vanadium carbon steel is a common and correct choice for exactly this reason.
A hard machete would chip on the first buried stone. A soft one deforms and can be filed straight again in the field.
Let the length do the work. A machete cuts by swinging weight through a target, not by pressing an edge into it. Aim at a shallow angle across a stem rather than square into it.
Keep your other hand and your legs out of the arc, and never swing at something you are also holding.
A file is the right tool, and a steep angle is correct. A thin acute edge on soft steel rolls on the first hard stroke.
Machetes sit in our Gear & Outdoors category rather than under Knives, because their primary purpose is chopping.