Facão
A large Portuguese combat and utility knife brought to Brazil by the colonists; in the maculelê dance, experienced capoeiristas use it instead of the wooden sticks.
Quick Facts
About the weapon
Facão is a large Portuguese knife that served both as a working tool and a weapon. It was brought to Brazil by Portuguese explorers and settlers who discovered and colonized the land. From it derives directly the South American facón, the main tool and weapon of the gauchos on the pampas of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. We have not been able to establish the dimensions of the facão itself in the sources. For the derived facón, sources give a large, heavy blade 25 to 51 cm long, sharpened on both sides for a few inches from the tip. Spanish caballeros in South America also took up the facón when various regulations forbade them from carrying a sword. In some capoeira schools, the maculelê dance is performed with a pair of machetes or facões instead of the wooden grima sticks, which are usually 50 to 60 cm long and about 3 cm thick. The large knives in the dance recall the tools of plantation slaves and strike sparks against each other. Because a fast dance with large knives is dangerous, only very experienced capoeiristas take them up.