You can do that with the tree still standing if you want. Its easier and you get a lot more fire wood....
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Batoning question
- Thread starter rlewpolar
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bikerector
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It was good enough 100 years ago, its good enough now....
The object of this so-called bushcraft is to know how to do things when out in the woods.
Relying on one tool if you don't have to is not a good idea....you know, that thing about eggs and baskets and all....
I know he has his opinion, but that doesn't make others any less valid. And he's probably one of the very few to choose a saddle axe as the best option, even in his day. They're actually not so easy to get these days, with only 3 options I've found when trying to procure one recently, and 2 are from council tool. Coincidently, even 140 years ago he was writing about the horror of people using big knives to get the same work done. Just as hot of a topic back then as it is now.
Absolutely, he did way more outdoors activities than I'll likely ever be able to do, but his choices in tools are not the Holy Grail either.
In many parts of the world, only a machete is used. That's a real survival edged tool there.
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vltor17
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Probably going to need a vid of batoning cucumbers with crescent wrenches. Am I the only one??
Wild Willie
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Let's also not forget that Nessmuk especially took advantage of the many lodges available in the Adirondack region at the time, and used chips/slash from survey crews when he did actually stay out of doors
Jsega51
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Nate did design THIS knife (See my pictures again). He used the general Kephart shape and size, but everything else is by his own design and serves a purpose. The Delta 3V steel which is his heat treat protocol, the S-grind, fasteners, and even the swedge which didn’t seem to impede any part of the process.
The piece of wood used as a baton suffered a few beauty marks, but don’t worry, I burned it so nobody had to see the carnage!
Thats not really a saddle axe. Its a small double bit hatchet, maybe 11" overall, way too small to be a saddle axe.
TwoHawks makes a really nice verwion BTW....
Either way, I prefer the small GB hatchet
What you use is often dependent on your environment. The hardwood forests of the North East aren't really conducive to machete use.....
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I've read everything I could get my hands on about Nessmuk and Kephart and I'm going to bet that they'd pretty much give up whatever Colclesser Bros. or Marble's or any other maker of the the time offered, if they could get their hands on one or more CPKs.
That said, their Friday afternoons would have been a lot more hectic.
That said, their Friday afternoons would have been a lot more hectic.
Dr Rez
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This ^ A bacho Laplander or even a COrona 10 inch paired with a decent sized knife can do pretty much everything you typically need.I respect all the "Silky" guys, but I'm a "Bahco" guy...
bikerector
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Thats not really a saddle axe. Its a small double bit hatchet, maybe 11" overall, way too small to be a saddle axe.
TwoHawks makes a really nice verwion BTW....
Either way, I prefer the small GB hatchet
What you use is often dependent on your environment. The hardwood forests of the North East aren't really conducive to machete use.....
Accounting for Sears being a tiny human, definately not way too small to be a saddle axe unkess he was running a really small head weight too (I've never actually looked to see what size head he used). By the specs at least, a saddle axe is essentially a double bit hatchet. 16" handle, 2lb head weight, at least that's the CT saddle axe's specs. Maybe they should've just called it a double-bit hatchet.
Using the other knives in the wood etch as scale (the folding knife is a large moose pattern, probably made by Napanoch or NYK Co, about 4 1/4" long), the hatchet would be approximately 10-11". The similar sized head on the 2Hawks hatchet is a bit under a pound at 14 oz, so definitely a lot smaller than a real saddle cruiser....A typical small Warren saddle cruiser made when they were actually in common use had a 19" handle and a 2 lb head. Those tiny 1lb axes are sometimes referred to as double bit trapper hatchets.
Speaking of small axes, this one is good for kindling......It is I think a small Vaughn-
I never could like that one...Rc of only 50-54, weighs over a pound, at that price the GB mini is a lot better....
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A situation I’ve been in is called winter, here in Canada we get 4-5 feet of snow in the winter months so as you can imagine it’s pretty hard to get kindling…. However if you look hard enough you can find bone dry sticks on the bottom of evergreen trees. But that’s if you’re in a evergreen forest in hardwood forests there’s not a lot of evergreen trees but what there is a lot of is dead falls, so it’s better to cut some wood with your saw then to baton it. In my opinion of course
I love my GB Forest axe over my others, but when loaded down with stuff felling trees, the tiny one has come in handy. I will have to look at the GB mini.
Here in New England there are tons of dead falls right now...most of them being ash trees. When they fall, dead ash trees pretty much explode into small bits. No cutting or batoning required......A situation I’ve been in is called winter, here in Canada we get 4-5 feet of snow in the winter months so as you can imagine it’s pretty hard to get kindling…. However if you look hard enough you can find bone dry sticks on the bottom of evergreen trees. But that’s if you’re in a evergreen forest in hardwood forests there’s not a lot of evergreen trees but what there is a lot of is dead falls, so it’s better to cut some wood with your saw then to baton it. In my opinion of course
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I’ve been going out camping for 55+ years and hundreds of camp fires I’ve started. I’ve never had a problem with getting a fire started with dry wood I’ve gathered and some twigs for kindling. I only remember a few times that we split some green wood and used a home made froe of an old modified lawn mower blade to batton with.
Dad didn’t like splitting wood with an axe as he had seen some bad accidental miss licks and glancing off and hitting a leg or foot. One fella lost a thumb, that was in the South Pacific during ww2. Battoning with a froe is a much safer way to split some wood.
As for square ended logs we had a saw but lots of times we broke smaller 3 inch branch wood in a fork of a tree. We used a small piece of tarp draped over it to keep pieces from flying everywhere.
Dad didn’t like splitting wood with an axe as he had seen some bad accidental miss licks and glancing off and hitting a leg or foot. One fella lost a thumb, that was in the South Pacific during ww2. Battoning with a froe is a much safer way to split some wood.
As for square ended logs we had a saw but lots of times we broke smaller 3 inch branch wood in a fork of a tree. We used a small piece of tarp draped over it to keep pieces from flying everywhere.