I see nothing wrong with batoning with a knife....
or using a screwdriver as a chisel...
or a Crescent wrench for a hammer....I do it all the time....:thumbup:
That's it really.
In my view, the whole of Wilderness and Survival Skills is about improvising. You make do with what you have or what you choose to carry. If you protest against batoning categorically, then you might as well protest splitting paracord to get the inner strands, folding tin foil to boil water, or filling a condom with much more fluid than it was ever intentionally designed to hold. I would argue that each of these accepted W&SS improvisations destroy the integrity of the original object, even if you use the best technique. Yet, in general, these things are accepted without a second thought.
Using a knife to baton through wood, doesn't (as far as I can determine) destroy the integrity of the original object provided you have proper technique. Sure, you'll have to sharpen it afterwards, but that's the decision you make. If the choice came down to a dull blade post batoning or hypothermia, i'd go with the former.
And the tougher the blade, the better for me if I found myself cold, wet, and freezing to death. Am I really going to be thinking about proper batoning technique while disoriented with a loss of motor skills in extreme wet cold? I would hope so, but chances are, all you'll be able to think about is how you can't feel your fingers and how much time you have left to get that fire going. In that case, I would be very thankful to have a blade that I had already tested out under ideal conditions. That's one less variable for me to worry about when conditions are hellish. I'd do whatever I could, as best I could, to stay alive.
Is everyone going to find themselves in such a situation? No. I dayhike in temperate California weather, so chances of me finding myself in that situation are slim though possible. Do I want to know if I can trust batoning with my blade, should that 0.0001% chance occur? Sure. Do I need to baton most of the time? No. But my situation and environment is independent of another's. Thus, what I determine necessary in a knife's design and how I use it are also independent of another.
Given a choice, I'd pick the best tool for the job, but if all I had was my FB and no other option but to baton, sure, I would.
And even if one batons when not in mortal danger, who cares? It is another skill in the toolbox, as people have said. Some want to do it to practice, in case they ever need to do it. Some do it because they actually like to baton, same as those who light fires with steel wool and a battery (neither of which was designed with firemaking in mind) when a perfectly good lighter is sitting in their pocket.
I think the definition of a knife is subjective and dynamic. It only has to fulfill your requirements, not the requirement of every other knife user out there. Ultimately, you are you and the external environment is the external environment. If the tool that you call a knife doesn't do a specific task for you, I believe you are allowed to change it or seek out a design that does. If that design doesn't conform to another's subjective definition of a knife, so be it; they are not the ones using your tool. You are using your tool. If you don't want to baton, don't baton. If you want to baton, baton. I think the problem lies in the communication of the word "knife" and everything it encompasses. Each user has a unique conception of the tool that he or she calls a "knife". Functionality-wise, if the tool does what you need it to do, and fulfills your concept, then why does another person's concept of that tool matter to you?
If we start telling people batoning is foolish, then what's to stop people from saying taking apart paracord is foolish, or folding tin foil is foolish, or filling a condom with water is foolish... that improvising is foolish?
