Batoning thoughts

By some of the comments, I feel like this is what people think using a baton with a knife looks like.

 
Pilsner said:
Batonning alone is not going to get a fire started. You’ll need tinder. If you make a one stick fire you will need to scrape the inside, and it better be dry. I would be out sniffing for the means to make a bundle, not relying on wood shavings. You can split small kindling [batonning] until the cows come home, but you have to get the matchstick kindling burning when all is said and done. Making a fire when you actually need one is a very serious business. It must not be rushed and it must not fail. The pressure is quite intense.
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Well I agree theres more to it than simply batonning larger to smaller. You can get most of your wood sizes in the same method, and then feathers and other smalls including scrapings. But if you only got smalls and a bunch of larger green or qet youre still screwed.
My point was that batonning has relevance.

I'm not opposed to burning larger and longer pieces either, once the fire is going.
 
Yes, battoning is essential to get at the center of dry wood when you don't have an axe or hatchet. That said, I never have been able to break a Mora in wrist sized wood. If planning to go in the woods Horace Kephart style, carry a 3 tool system. A 2 bladed slip joint like a Case trapper, a belt knife like a Condor Kephart or Mora Companion and a Tomahawk or hatchet. A saw would be nice too.
 
I have mentioned this before but I enjoy using a large chopper to baton wood into similar sizes. For large rounds, I’ll use an axe to make more manageable pieces to baton.

I baton the pieces to smaller splits that are all relatively the same size. I then make a large pile to season, and keep a few rounds intact.

When I want to make a wood fire to cook with, I will use shavings and tinder to start, then add seasoned wood, and split a fresh round to add some greener wood for flavor. Since they are all about the same size as dictated by using a controlled splitting method, the charcoal forms evenly.

I rarely find myself in a survival situation, so I am not sure if I would baton in that scenario.
 
MolokaiRider said:
I rarely find myself in a survival situation, so I am not sure if I would baton in that scenario.
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Maybe you would but you'd just be more careful and selective and really protect your fire afterwards.
I also don't think all batonning is down the center of a larger piece, but often taking large slices off the edge and working around the piece, which is easier on the blade and less work.
 
Batoning has been a traditional method of kindling generation for many hundreds of years or more, and billhooks are typically used for the task to the point where it's not uncommon to see billhooks with their spines mushroomed from being repeatedly struck by steel hammers. Despite the fact that nearly all of these billhooks are hidden tang construction, you don't tend to find truly broken ones. Because they're used for wood of an appropriate size and grain.
 
Seymor Beavers said:
So ,in all my Military and civilian life I have never been anywhere in the world where there wasn't various sizes of wood ,bark , and a mulititude of tinders with which to easily make a fire . Other than a wet situation where you need to get to the core of the wood to get to some dry stuff . I addition I don't get the fire stick thing ,dulling up a blade that you might need to process game for example. To me its all video marketing of knives . I'm sure ill get blasted here which I could care less . Thoughts ?
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I use the spine of my blade or a striker to on the fire steel. Never the edge of the knife.
 
mtngunr said:
When you examine force and duration and direction on knives in typical uses, to include stabbing, and chopping....

and then compare the shock loads, direction of forces applied to handle, and blade (mostly opposite to normal use), also impact velocity of edges, and etc..

The only wonder is that knives hold up as long as they do....they certainly will have internal stress accumulate out the whazoo, be greatly fatiqued, and will fail quite sooner..

If not in original owner's hands, then in the hands of a subsequent owner...

I think several hundred years from now, the reputation of knives made today will be severely tarnished by high failure rates, the bushcraft craze maybe forgotten, and this generation accused of entering a dark ages of knife manufacture, .......

and wisdom of the time saying all knives from this timeframe are suspect, and best left as wallhangars...
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This post is alllllmost like Lucky Charms. It's magically ridiculous.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Batoning has been a traditional method of kindling generation for many hundreds of years or more, and billhooks are typically used for the task to the point where it's not uncommon to see billhooks with their spines mushroomed from being repeatedly struck by steel hammers. Despite the fact that nearly all of these billhooks are hidden tang construction, you don't tend to find truly broken ones. Because they're used for wood of an appropriate size and grain.
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This. Batoning is also a cultural activity as well. People have been doing it for a long long time before it was ever a debating topic on the internet. It's a non-issue in my book and am happy and comfortable batoning my large woods blades through wood, to make fire.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Batoning has been a traditional method of kindling generation for many hundreds of years or more, and billhooks are typically used for the task to the point where it's not uncommon to see billhooks with their spines mushroomed from being repeatedly struck by steel hammers. Despite the fact that nearly all of these billhooks are hidden tang construction, you don't tend to find truly broken ones. Because they're used for wood of an appropriate size and grain.
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I'm told that in 500 years, super future space archeologists will find the ruins of your shop and some of those billhooks and be like "Who were these savages?"

:D
 
And actually, it's my opinion that what future peoples will actually think is that we were crazy. Could you imagine? They find a Carothers or something in like, 4V and they're like "....What....I don't...is this 4V??? Steve-43Z, Bob-184, come look at this! We don't even make our asteroid drilling bits out of 4V, what was the point of all this? Were they chopping down aluminum trees?!" LOL

Fun to think about, anyway.
 
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I see no big deal about batoning with a knife. In a survival situation, I would not choose to baton even if it took me some extra effort to feed a fire. It is mostly done for fun in my opinion. I would not use a knife to baton wood unless it was a life or death situation (true survival scenario) and not building a fire because we like to build fires. I wouldn't want to break a knife by accident that I was depending on. But for everyday camping or moderate hiking, baton away.
 
Spirch said:
Going to let my video speak for me



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Watching this reminded me of something I learned this summer as I processed a lot more wood with choppers and axes than a saw. Getting wood to stand on it's own is a PITA if you don't saw the wood so that it's flat. You can split it while it's on it's side, of course, but getting it to stand upright so you can see natural weak spots in the grain is convenient and then using a knife to put on the weak spot is simple and easy and safe.
 
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