Batoning - What am I missing?

salvo

salvo

Joined
Mar 14, 2006
Messages
591
I have always wanted to ask this question!
I have been camping and hunting all my life and have never had a need to baton a piece of wood. I just gather up smalls to start a fire and feed larger pieces as it burns. I'm out West, maybe there is more of a selection of wood out here when starting a fire?

I've split logs for the fireplace at home and can see the need with the limited supply of logs/sizes in the wood stack. But even then I use a wedge and sledge.

Is it just something to do that is enjoyable, which is OK by me, or is there something about batoning that I'm completely missing?
 
It really helps when everything around you is soaking wet and you need to get to some dry wood to start a fire. Little pieces of wood will be water logged and you won't be able to start a fire with them. If you find a dead standing tree you can break it down and get some good dry wood out of the middle.

It is very relaxing for me as well. Everyone had different methods when they go camping. I know very experienced guys who say you don't need more than a 3 inch knife and a machete. I think there are probably few time when you would actually need to baton logs, but meh....
 
well, see, you start with big wood, then you make it into smaller wood.... sometimes when your wood is too big, you have to do that kind of thing

on a more serious note DNA hit it square on the head...
 
I baton when I camp all the time. Basically because I bring pre split wood. I use my Ash1 and a small log as the baton. I use a pre split log and baton to cut it up into small pieces I can use as kindling. You are able to be very specific about the amount of wood you can cut off. Plus, it's really fun.
 
It's just a handy little skill, allows you to safely process larger wood to smaller sizes as needed with minimal tools (and carry weight, and effort). A wedge & sledge are heavy and awkward to carry long distances on your person. Heck, I opt for the splitting-axe rather than wedge+sledge at home. But I won't carry the splitter out into the woods, too much extra effort for such a dedicated tool. A capable knife is multi-purpose, a splitting wedge as well as a general cutting implement. It is lighter and more compact as well. Combined with a baton collected in the woods, it can be used to chop down small trees for building materials as well as process firewood - hammer & chisel. In wet conditions, batonning aids in reaching the dry wood within thicker pieces. Batonning can be used to make the "plate" for starting a friction fire.
There have also been circumstances I have found myself in out on the trail when the sun is long gone, no moon, and a fire is desired for cook/warmth/light, and it so happened that the only wood in the near vicinity to be used for fuel was a large, well-seasoned (HARD) oak log ~8-10" diameter. By "near vicinity" I mean that nothing but green twigs and wet leaves was found in a 30-yard radius after a thorough search (which took extra time) - apparently previous campers had already scavenged the immediate surroundings and left only the one log which they weren't capable of using for fuel. Again, it was cold and dark. More time could have been spent searching further out from the site, but that is increased time/effort/energy with increased risk of injury. Instead, I broke my walking stick in half and, using the thinner portion for fuel and the thicker portion as a baton, put my knife to the seasoned log and had enough material, dry material, for a strong fire within minutes. In my estimation, batonning let me accomplish the task in less time with less expenditure of energy and less risk of injury... for that situation.

As to the enjoyment factor, that's purely subjective, but good for you if you enjoy what you're doing as well!
 
I was asking myself the same question! It is like respecting your tools and using a knife for cutting and hatchet/axe for splitting is not cool any more: you have to abuse it to show you are a man...
Just kidding, mean no offence...
I have batoned myself a few times: when I was a boy and did not know any better. I used a kitchen knife (so you can imagine!) but it was not damaged in any way. And it was not even that hard!. Based on that limited but quite personal experience I now tend to believe that batoning rather tells you about the user than about the knife.
 
43 years old and been camping since I was 8 or 9 in the scouts..I've never even heard of batoning until I seen it on you-tube (nutnfancy)..Its nice to know another way to process wood if I need to,, but I've never needed too..And I've camped out in the rain a bunch...I'm sure someday I'll give it a try though
 
I usually don't have to, but sometimes my thumb gets sore holding a lighter to an 1 1/2" round stick trying to get it to light :D. If there is small enough dry wood available, then batoning is unnecessary, but when all that's around and dry is larger branches it's a handy way to get burnable wood. And it's just plain fun sometimes to hammer an FFBM through a stump
 
Here ya go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Froe

This comes from the old wood working ideal of splitting logs into shingles and/or smaller projects. The Froe has been used for centuries, batonning is an offshoot of that practice using a sturdy knife instead of a froe. Its much more accurate and follows the grain better than a splitting wedge.

I found this idea about 12 years ago stumbling upon a fellow splitting cedar logs into shakes for a roof. I spent hours learning that day. Then I found the "Woodwrights Shop" on PBS, he uses a Froe to split timber to usable sizes for his projects. And he is a hoot to watch. :) http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/ 31 years, wow!
 
My distant Cousin has a garage full of fresh cut wood everytime I go up in Sept (Alleghenies). Not a lot to do up in the hills so out come the Busses and a wood splitin marathon ensues. Saves the old people from splittin it and I get to have fun with my knives. Silly to some but relaxing to me :D
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I will give you an example. I just went camping in South Florida it was in the high 90s and humid as all hell. There were also a crap ton of mosquitoes and i mean a crap ton. It was ridiculous. All we had for insect repellent was the fire and some 40% deet and they didn't care about either not to mention deet makes you even hotter. So I go in the woods to gather fire wood and the mosquitoes got even worse, I had pants and long sleeves on and they were attacking my face. I was literally inhaling them. So after I swallowed about 5 or 6 mosquitos just by breathing I said enough. I couldn't spend much time in the thick woods/jungle (No trails) with that many muzzies so I found the first downed tree I could find, drag it back to camp and started chopping. Now this was a normal camp site and the majority of the good stuff to start the fire (kindling , tinder, ect) was all used up from previous campers so alls I had was this medium size tree, so I had to process the entire tree into Kindling, tinder, medium and large pieces cause I was not going back in those woods unless I absolutely had to. Kinda funny I was the only "Outdoor" type there, I was with mostly my girlfriends friends, as Im going to town on this tree they are all looking at me laughing " Sure glad we brought you huh" :) Good times. I would have never thought that mosquitoes would have been a reason for me not being able to gather the necessary fire wood but then that's why we buy these knives right, just in case anything happens I can handle it.
 
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Salvo, I am also in southern nevada and with how dry it is here you will probably never need to baton anything.
 
Andrew S, yes I never thought about having to baton to get to dry wood, that makes sense for those that need too! Also I rarely camp in dedicated camp grounds, finding kindling would be next to impossible in a camping area, so making your own is the best option for sure.
Plus it does look like fun.
 
Beckerhead83 said:
I will give you an example. I just went camping in South Florida it was in the high 90s and humid as all hell. There were also a crap ton of mosquitoes and i mean a crap ton. It was ridiculous. All we had for insect repellent was the fire and some 40% deet and they didn't care about either not to mention deet makes you even hotter. So I go in the woods to gather fire wood and the mosquitoes got even worse, I had pants and long sleeves on and they were attacking my face. I was literally inhaling them. So after I swallowed about 5 or 6 mosquitos just by breathing I said enough. I couldn't spend much time in the thick woods/jungle (No trails) with that many muzzies so I found the first downed tree I could find, drag it back to camp and started chopping. Now this was a normal camp site and the majority of the good stuff to start the fire (kindling , tinder, ect) was all used up from previous campers so alls I had was this medium size tree, so I had to process the entire tree into Kindling, tinder, medium and large pieces cause I was not going back in those woods unless I absolutely had to. Kinda funny I was the only "Outdoor" type there, I was with mostly my girlfriends friends, as Im going to town on this tree they are all looking at me laughing " Sure glad we brought you huh" :) Good times. I would have never thought that mosquitoes would have been a reason for me not being able to gather the necessary fire wood but then that's why we buy these knives right, just in case anything happens I can handle it.
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That made me chuckle. I know a thing about mosquitos being from the swamps in La, and I feel your pain. I will never forget once when I went to a friends property in Mississippi and there was a THICK CLOUD of mosquitos that swarmed us as soon as we got out to open the gate. It was beyond crazy....when I say a cloud I mean a could, and this was during the day. I have never seen anything like that since, and I really don't want to. lol


dericdesmond said:
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...someone has been busy....

How long did it take you to make that pile?
 
salvo said:
Andrew S, yes I never thought about having to baton to get to dry wood, that makes sense for those that need too! Also I rarely camp in dedicated camp grounds, finding kindling would be next to impossible in a camping area, so making your own is the best option for sure.
Plus it does look like fun.
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I've done some occasional batoning around here but I will be the first to admit that it has never been necessary. Being able to make a bunch of feather sticks is far more useful fore fire making than being able to split a bunch of wood.
 
Where I camp the wood normally needs to be split or the larger pieces just smolder so batoning is a great way to get that fresh wood to the flame. It's normally not seasoned wood and has bark. I also like to baton my NMFBM into the back side of the log to get some tension running down it then give it a good whack with my wetterling and lots of times it'll start a very nice crack down the center of the log.
 
I baton all time with my knives and it is faster splitting up wood than with an axe, I can also be more precise than with a hatchet or axe when you get down the the smaller sizes even more so. A split log burns much better than an unsplit log from my experience. If you have standing dead dry timber I can see the need not to even split it up just throw it on the fire. For me it is very enjoyable and relaxing batoning/processing my firewood or kindling for my inside stoves and firepit. By using your knives hard you really get to appreciate the special heat treatment of Jerry's knives. Honestly I have pounded my knives very hard not to be tough guy but I wanted to see if the hype was real and I tell you what it is realer then real. I have posted this before but friends that have come over can not believe what these knives can do. One friend bought a NMSFNO and a DSSF after seeing what they can do. In a way I was making sure that if I needed to use it to survive that they would not fail me and none of them have and through batoning I have learned a lot about my knives. I highly recommend trying it you will appreciate your Busse knives more so than ever and they in turn will love you for it....trust me your knives don't want to be Queens :D

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I've used knives to baton with where other options were not available or less than ideal in three instances:
-at a friends house during a party for a small firepit because their axe was so blunt that it was incapable of splitting smaller pieces. I needed the smaller peices to start the fire and everything they had were large 1/2 rounds.
-at a friends house for their fireplace, they did not have an axe and the wood was slightly wet, we didn't have enough paper to dry it out to the point where it would light.
-While camping and it was raining. Axes are very heavy, and wet wood is hard to light. Split with sharp dry edges it lights relatively easily.
 
I just look at it as a case of There is more than one way to skin a cat. I never batoned wood until I found busses, but I've always brought split and cut logs camping, and there's always a need to split wood around camp.

Plus, when you own 12 large, $200+ knives, you tend to find ways to get use out of them. A large knife transitions well from task to task around camp, or the backyard, where as a hatchet really only has one specific use.
 
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