I have an Imacasa El Salvador machete. It's nothing special to look at but far superior in performance to the American ones. I've broken a few Gerber machetes already just beheading poultry!! Chopping wood with that sort of cheap one is out if the question.
I bet it was the handles that broke on those Gerbers. The Imacasa has a non-riveted molded indestructible nylon handle that I have yet been able to break during normal use. The blades are 30 to 50% thinner then most other machetes making them lighter to use and allowing them to cut through wood with less resistance, and you can work longer. I don't know what kind of steel it is but it holds an edge like crazy. There is a model that La Corneta use to make that I love best of all. Imacasa does not make it anymore. It had a different blade style that was much narrower then their standard version. I used one for many years in the Amazon when I was doing deep jungle exploration. I used to make three to five month trips in the out in the jungle during the dry season. That old model style was perfect for trail cutting style work. It came in an 18 to 22" blade lengths. I still have my old one that I used for all those years. It has saved my life many times. When I am old an grey it will hang on my wall in a display case. I been watching eBay for 5 years for one like it to come up for auction and have yet to see one. La Corneta established a second factory in Columbia that is still running, but do to corruption they started producing an inferior product and La Corneta cut ties with them decades ago (they take their name and quality very serious). The Columbia factory still makes the blade style of that old model, but the handle is the hard plastic riveted type you find on other machetes and their steel is not quit the quality of Imacasa, but still better then most other brands of machete you can buy in the world. I have yet to find a way to get the machetes from the Columbia factory in the US. As far as looks go, Imacasa machetes are made for real work and are preferred and prized throughout Central and South America by people who use them for real work and their livelihood. In Brazil, Tramontina makes pretty good machetes that you buy cheap, but a Brazilian will spend 10x more to buy a machete from La Corneta (Columbia Import. Imacasa is not available).