Baton without tools

O

OmegaJuicebox

Joined
Jan 29, 2009
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How can one baton wood without a knife or and axe? I was just wondering in case I find myself (heaven forbid) I have no tools on me.
 
wooden wedges can be used, by driving them into small cracks along the grain of the wood... However fashioning a wooden wedge with out at least a pocket knife would be challenging. I suppose wedge shaped stones could be found or fashione as well...
 
Jeez, no tools at all? I guess I'd be trying to find some small, flat river rocks to pound in to cracks on the wood.

But honestly I think if you have absolutely no tools at all and you are dependent on batonning wood to survive, your odds are not that good!
 
A sturdy boot can help 'harvest' dead wood, low branches and saplings.

Do you have any primitive living skills? What is the point of having broken wood if you have no means to use or burn it?

If you want to make a fire plow, you will need to find or hand-break the correct pcs of wood.

Being completely without tools is a bad thing and completely irresponsible.
 
I really don't have primitive living skills. As for having no tools, it's always a possibility (unfortunately). I have a knife in my survival kit (still in construction) that'll help make a wood wedge (thanks to RescueRiley for letting me know about them). The only "survival kit" I have is a Altoids tin kit. I recently got a Swedish firesteel and put it into it.
 
take the lid off your altoids tin, fold it over and pound it into the shape of a blade, make crude wedges and use those wedges to baton wood. :D
 
There is no such situation as having no tools....

For however many years there were before a steel knife was made, men used sharp rocks to cut things and sharp rocks will still cut. Find two rocks and bang them together till you get a sharp edge. You now have a wedge, pick up a strong stick or another rock and you have a baton. The only tools you really need were made into your body so you'll always have them with you ( I'm talking about brain, hands and eyes). However, if you get injured then it don't hurt to have any extras you can afford to buy and are willing to carry.

David
 
Yea, improvisation is one of the most important part of survival in a situation without anything but yourself other than the will to survive. I wouldn't be caught dead without my knife in a situation. Hopefully, I know enough to survival to prevent me from dying in a survival situation. I hope even more so I don't end up in one or anyone else for that matter.
 
Echo4v said:
.....The only tools you really need were made into your body so you'll always have them with you ( I'm talking about brain, hands and eyes). However, if you get injured then it don't hurt to have any extras you can afford to buy and are willing to carry.

David
Click to expand...

So where do you get extra hands and eyes from please? :D
 
OmegaJuicebox said:
How can one baton wood without a knife or and axe? .
Click to expand...
I assume you're referring to splitting wood with a baton.

Wood that is snapped will rarely have a clean break. You can use the jagged edge as the tip of your first wedge, battoning it into a natural crack in the wood you want to split. This should start to open a bigger crack. Find another broken piece and batton this in next to the first "wedge", opening a bigger crack in the process. Continue using larger pieces of deadfall as the crack widens. As you subsequently start to open up the wood, your first couple of "wedges" will loosen up and can be reused. Continue until the wood is split :thumbup:

Hope this helps.


Kind regards
Mick
 
I don't know why you would want to baton wood, unless it is to get dry wood. If it is, I would just gather dead twigs from hanging trees etc and bust my branches up by leverage between two close growing trees some of the broken wood would begin to split as well and you could pull it apart, maybe even sharpen a wooden wedge on a rock if you thought it was necessary and pound it into the edge of one of your broken pieces of wood.
 
Wow, I didn't realize that batoning was such a vital skill that I need to worry about how to do it without tools. It is a wonder I have survived to the age I am now without maxing out my batoning skills.

If I had to baton, I don't know why, maybe to test the toughness of a rock, I would bang rocks together until I got a few wedge shaped pieces or rub pieces of wood on rocks until I had fashioned crude wedges.

If there were no rocks then you would really be in a pickle. Then I would break seasoned limbs between two other trees until one broke unevenly, or split, and then use that uneven piece as a wedge.

If there were no trees, I would.....wait a minute.... if there were no trees I wouldn't have anything to baton :confused: How can I possibly survive without batoning. I would probably just run around aimlessly trying to figure out how to baton rocks or cactus or whatever was availble until I died from exposure. Chris
 
What I think runningboar is trying to say (however sarcastically) is that batoning is not a skill you would likely have much use for if you were in a situation where you were without tools. It's a handy skill for sure, but one that seems to integrate best with shelter building techniques that rely on having access to at least basic survival gear or more permanent camps. However I think the biggest mistake is assuming that batoning would be a technique primarily use for the acquisition of firewood--personally I view it as more useful for tool creation since it allows for very controlled cuts and application of pressure.

If you're trying to build a fire, just use small dead sticks. No need to baton unless the big stuff is (somehow) all that's around, like boards from an abandoned structure on a beach or something. However if your only knife was something like a swiss army knife you might find it very difficult to baton it.
 
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