The golok is a type of machete

Machete

The machete is a large cleaver-like cutting tool. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the English language, an equivalent term is matchet, though it is less commonly known...

 or broadsword originating in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

. The word golok (sometimes misspelled as "gollock") is of Indonesian

Indonesian language

Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....

 origin but is also used in Malaysia and is known as gulok in the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. In Malaysia it is usually interchangeable with parang

Parang (knife)

The parang is the Indonesia equivalent of the machete. Typical vegetation in South East Asia is more woody than in South America and the parang is therefore optimized for a stronger chopping action with a heavier blade and a "sweet spot" further forward of the handle, the blade is also beveled more...

.

The Golok style is noted for being the pattern for British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

-issue machetes used since the early 1950s.

Sizes and weights vary, as does blade shape. Golok tend to be heavier and shorter than machetes, often being used for bush and branch cutting. Having either a primary grind

Primary grind

The primary grind is where a knife first begins to narrow into a cutting edge from the thickness of the main stock of the blade. The cross-sectional shape of the blade of a knife or sword is made up of different planes, or grinds. The sharp, cutting edge of the blade is often further ground at a...

 or an edgewise taper, the golok is less likely to jam in green wood

Green wood

Green wood is a term used to describe wood products that have been recently cut and have therefore not had an opportunity to "season" by evaporation of the internal moisture. The term is used often in describing the relative moisture content of wood products such as firewood and lumber...

 than the flat-sided machete.

Golok are traditionally made with a springy

Spring steel

Spring steel is a low alloy, medium carbon steel or high carbon steel with a very high yield strength. This allows objects made of spring steel to return to their original shape despite significant bending or twisting.-Grades:...

 carbon steel blade of a softer temper

Tempering

Tempering is a heat treatment technique for metals, alloys and glass. In steels, tempering is done to "toughen" the metal by transforming brittle martensite or bainite into a combination of ferrite and cementite or sometimes Tempered martensite...

than that of other large knives. This makes them easier to dress and sharpen in the field, although it also requires more frequent attention. Although many manufacturers produce factory-made golok, there is still an important handmade production in Indonesia.