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your 500 miles from the nearest town of 20 people......you baton your knife......it breaks in half.........
now what?
Now you have two knives :thumbup:
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Batoning with a rock?
- Thread starter myright
- Start date
Now you have two knives :thumbup:
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- Jul 21, 2001
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Procturist: Very realistic thought.
Bushman: Naturally you preserve the knife at all costs, it will look great in a museum 100 years from now with the by line:
"Survival knife found with skeleton, knife still in pristine condition"
circa 2010
Just like some Sheffield Bowies of the Civil War that turn up in "mint condition" it will be duplicated for posterity.
Bushman: Naturally you preserve the knife at all costs, it will look great in a museum 100 years from now with the by line:
"Survival knife found with skeleton, knife still in pristine condition"
circa 2010
Just like some Sheffield Bowies of the Civil War that turn up in "mint condition" it will be duplicated for posterity.
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G'day Bushman
Kind regards
Mick
If this is the scenario, sounds to me like the individual needed a better knife to start with in the first placeyour 500 miles from the nearest town of 20 people......you baton your knife......it breaks in half.........
now what?
Again I see the assumption that battoning is only ever needed to process wood
Kind regards
Mick
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I'd like to add some uses for batoning to the thread.
Again- I don't like the idea of batoning with rocks and hammers and steel pipe. But I've done it, and will do it. Of course, I chop through brass rods and throw knives into seasoned maple logs. I'm making knives, I kinda have to do this- as Ed pointed out so well
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ropes and lines. This is a common thing to do with a rigging knife. beating through a 2 inch hawser, for example.
bone and joints. I think this has been mentioned. I don't find it necessary, I know how to take apart an animal, and I use a hatchet when I'm chopping up bones for the dogs. But it's done, I've done it, and I'll probably do it again.
Plastics, heavy cardboard tubes, and solid paper "rods". I've done this in the shop. With the tubes, it's not uncommon at all.
Anything else?
Again- I don't like the idea of batoning with rocks and hammers and steel pipe. But I've done it, and will do it. Of course, I chop through brass rods and throw knives into seasoned maple logs. I'm making knives, I kinda have to do this- as Ed pointed out so well
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ropes and lines. This is a common thing to do with a rigging knife. beating through a 2 inch hawser, for example.
bone and joints. I think this has been mentioned. I don't find it necessary, I know how to take apart an animal, and I use a hatchet when I'm chopping up bones for the dogs. But it's done, I've done it, and I'll probably do it again.
Plastics, heavy cardboard tubes, and solid paper "rods". I've done this in the shop. With the tubes, it's not uncommon at all.
Anything else?
I understand what you're saying Bushman, but how many people here have been on a trip that remote? And a solo trip at that, where they take one knife but no PLB?
Most of the stuff we read and write about on here is just day trips. Not belittling day trips at all. But it changes priorities somewhat and how much you trash your gear when you're only 2km from the car. If I were 500 miles from help, I'd baby my gear every little bit!
Most of the stuff we read and write about on here is just day trips. Not belittling day trips at all. But it changes priorities somewhat and how much you trash your gear when you're only 2km from the car. If I were 500 miles from help, I'd baby my gear every little bit!
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yup, i dont care what anyone says...when your only means of survival is your knife, a ferro rod/fire and drinkable water source you dont mess around beating the crap out of your knife with a rock.
G'day Bushman
If this is the scenario, sounds to me like the individual needed a better knife to start with in the first place
Again I see the assumption that battoning is only ever needed to process wood
Kind regards
Mick
my point exactly........there is many ways to process wood, but people are fixated on the batoning. I blame the proliferation of youtube videos, "hey just go into the woods with a knife and wail on it to get dry wood!" Ray Bear Survivorman Woods Dudes all do it, so they must be obeyed!
nothing will ever convince me that beating your knife thru a frozen log or chunk of hard wood is a good idea. I dont buy this crap that if the knife is properly made it wont break, there is JUST TOO MANY VARIABLES (temp, grain structure, heat treatment, wood grain direction (twisted) , wood fiber density, how hard your beating on it, where on the knife your beating on it, what your beating the knife with etc etc etc etc etc etc. I wouldn't even baton Horton Knives KRAKEN (1/2" thick) thru a log.
Its romantic and fun to play bushcrafter when you can go back home every day to a well stocked fridge full of food and beer, and kick off the boots and go online and post your days exploits . Its quite another thing when your deep into the woods in a Canadian winter abusing your only tools in this fashion. Its completely irresponsible of seasoned woods bums to be teaching batoning to the inexperienced, who may go out into the wood with just one knife one day and get lost and then possibly break their only tool that will make their survival more comfortable.
just my opinion on it, YOUR MILAGE MIGHT VARY. If you choose to baton, thats your choice.
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I think you missed the point of Mick's post.
The point is that there is more then just wood that may need to be split or cut,
...and batoning is a a technique to use your knife more efficiently.
To blindly write off batoning is not using your tools to their full potential.
But please, no rocks on my knives.
Big Mike
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Post expired.
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How's this for an idea:
In a survival situation you should never be rougher on your equipment than you have to. If you have to beat your knife with a rock then do so, but if you have a better option that is kinder on you knife then go with that. I wouldn't hesitate to baton my BK-9 by beating it with a rock, unless I had a better choice of course.
You do what you have to in order to survive - but you don't wreck your important survival gear unless you have no choice.
In a survival situation you should never be rougher on your equipment than you have to. If you have to beat your knife with a rock then do so, but if you have a better option that is kinder on you knife then go with that. I wouldn't hesitate to baton my BK-9 by beating it with a rock, unless I had a better choice of course.
You do what you have to in order to survive - but you don't wreck your important survival gear unless you have no choice.
There it's been said. I don't remember making feather sticks but maybe a handful of times in the last thirty or so years. I can mash sticks with rocks to make a pile of tinder so fast that some of you would still be fumbling with your toys!
Point being, in a true survival / emergency situation, it is far more practical to to spend as little time setting up a fire as needed in order to get the heat going. How many of you have truly practiced a trouble situation? Say falling into a freezing cold creek, climbing out, clearing the snow from a spot you want a fire in, and then building it while shivering, dripping, and cramping up?
Did you whittle a feather stick? Wasn't easy to do while shivering, dripping wet was it? I won't even think about batoning in that situation. Rocks are great tools to use, just not with my knife.
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your 500 miles from the nearest town of 20 people......you baton your knife......it breaks in half.........
now what?
If I'm alive I can then make do. If I have a pristine knife and I'm dead it won't help me.
Don't get me wrong. If I have a choice, I'm not going to take a chance on damaging my knife. I agree with everyone here that says it is stupid to do it.
That said, sometimes survival requires us to do things that would normally be regarded as stupid. I will do what I have to in order to survive. I'll then be alive to face the next problem.
LMT66
Gold Member
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- Jun 18, 2008
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One day when I was out in favorable weather but with snow covering, i wanted a fire but chose to not use my knife at all.
I found 10 foot sections of dead wood. I then found a big tree that grew forked not far from the ground. I wedged the 10 footers in the fork of the tree and proceeded to crack them into sections. Some of the 10 footers just exploded at the crack point and little bits of wood flew around which I gathered up for tinder. The little bits can be turned into tinder by using a sharp stone and scraping it into fluff.
Others were clean breaks but short enough to micro manage a constant fire overnight. Those that broke cleanly (but with a jagged end) tended to have a crack that could easily be split apart with a rock wedge if not your hand. Almost all can be split by whacking the little sections on a hard rock with the right profile.
Getting to dry wood is pretty easy. The hard part is lighting your tinder material with a firesteel. It looks so easy on you-tube video's but add in precip falling, wind and temps in the teens, shivering, frozen knees, feet and hands and you have a hard task.
There are plenty of ways to get a dry wood without beating on your blade with a rock.
If you have wood to baton, you have wood to baton with.
If your in the desert, that's a whole different story. You most likely won't be burning wood. You'll be burning tumbleweeds and brush.
If i were on a solo trip and had only one knife to hit with a rock (whatever the emergency reason is), I'd be sure to have thought about and exhausted other reasonable options before doing it.
I found 10 foot sections of dead wood. I then found a big tree that grew forked not far from the ground. I wedged the 10 footers in the fork of the tree and proceeded to crack them into sections. Some of the 10 footers just exploded at the crack point and little bits of wood flew around which I gathered up for tinder. The little bits can be turned into tinder by using a sharp stone and scraping it into fluff.
Others were clean breaks but short enough to micro manage a constant fire overnight. Those that broke cleanly (but with a jagged end) tended to have a crack that could easily be split apart with a rock wedge if not your hand. Almost all can be split by whacking the little sections on a hard rock with the right profile.
Getting to dry wood is pretty easy. The hard part is lighting your tinder material with a firesteel. It looks so easy on you-tube video's but add in precip falling, wind and temps in the teens, shivering, frozen knees, feet and hands and you have a hard task.
There are plenty of ways to get a dry wood without beating on your blade with a rock.
If you have wood to baton, you have wood to baton with.
If your in the desert, that's a whole different story. You most likely won't be burning wood. You'll be burning tumbleweeds and brush.
If i were on a solo trip and had only one knife to hit with a rock (whatever the emergency reason is), I'd be sure to have thought about and exhausted other reasonable options before doing it.
