Carrying the spray (mace) and a knife (7)
I believe the answer is:
machete
'knife' is the definition.
(machete is a kind of knife)
'carrying the spray mace and a' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'the' is 'het' which is present in the answer.
'a' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for machete that I've seen before include "Knife for hacking" , "The mace (anag.)" , "Broad heavy knife used in S America" , "Jungle chopper" , "Heavy knife used as weapon" .)