Batoning?

eveled

eveled

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Mar 11, 2016
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This batoning thing got out of hand IMHO. Somehow it is the gold standard for knife quality now.

People turning their nose up at good quality stick tang knives and carrying sharpened leaf springs. I want a knife that is good at being a knife.

If I want to baton I’ll get a froe.

what say you?
 
I don't think anyone, with real practical knowledge of knife-use, considers batoning the gold standard of knife quality.

A bunch of YouTubers may see it that way, but those people are seldom anything other that light entertainment.

There is nothing wrong with batoning with your knife. I often do it, but it not a measure of the quality. And I will adjust the force of the blows to the dimensions of the knife.
 
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You can successfully baton with an Opinel or a $4 Walmart chef's knife. It's all about selecting wood that's an appropriate length, diameter, and grain to be batoned by the knife in question and about using proper technique when you do so. But if you're an idiot and try driving a light-duty knife through a gnarled and knot-filled log with all the grace of an 800lb gorilla, of course you'll risk breaking a quality tool. Matching tools to tasks requires intelligence, mindfulness, and "tool literacy". And I believe that most people can develop their ability to read a tool and its limits and what tasks it's able to handle appropriately. Batoning has its uses, but doing it wrong does not a bad knife make.
 
i could see it being useful in an absolute emergency. However, battoning is not even in the top 20 things I expect my knife to handle before it gets to that point. Still, you can baton anything with the right technique.
 
Might as well use an axe for the job but proper technique with a folder in general is important. Some knives you can baton with the blade unlocked, others like the triad lock, seem to handle better. I just use an axe or a stronger tool but if you’re in a pinch it will do. That’s the point I think, the weekend warrior prepper inside everyone wants to be ready.
 
eveled said:
This batoning thing got out of hand IMHO. Somehow it is the gold standard for knife quality now.

People turning their nose up at good quality stick tang knives and carrying sharpened leaf springs. I want a knife that is good at being a knife.

If I want to baton I’ll get a froe.

what say you?
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For people who don't actually spend a lot of time out in the woods knowing that batoning is a thing, and that their knife can do it, gives them peace of mind.

It's like the new homeowner that goes out to buy a buy a circular saw because they have to cut a 2x4 for a project. They might use that saw 4 times over the next 10 years and a base model Black and Decker would service them just fine. Instead of just buying that $40.00 Black and Decker and cutting their 2x4 they head to youtube, watch tool videos for 3 days, and walk off with a $200.00 circular satisfied in the knowledge that on the off chance they suddenly become a professional framer they'll have the right tool for the job.

The same can be said for steels IMO. Ever since the new RexfordTUFF500Mo30 was developed and is 1.5% tougher than CruM600Finium, I just can't buy knives in that old crap steel anymore because I never know when I might have to cut my way out of a meteorite and immediately have to slice some paper. I mean it's never happened before and in my daily knife I pretty much only cut food and tape, but at least I'll know I'm carrying a knife that's capable of doing so just in case.
 
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I hope I'm not the only one who had to google "froe".

The only time I baton with a knife is when I try to cut my wife's meatloaf.

Anytime I see batoning on a youtube video, I just fast forward.

Most of my camping nowadays is truck camping. I keep an axe and folding saw in the truck to process wood.
 
gazz98 said:
I hope I'm not the only one who had to google "froe".

The only time I baton with a knife is when I try to cut my wife's meatloaf.

Anytime I see batoning on a youtube video, I just fast forward.

Most of my camping nowadays is truck camping. I keep an axe and folding saw in the truck to process wood.
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There is a long and storied history of the froe. Back in the mid to late 1870s Arthur Tuen set up a small blacksmith shop just east of Mackinac, MI. Due to the popular logging trade of the area, the froe was an indispensable tool for the wood cutters and wood workers of the area heading to the Upper Peninsula to harvest the larger, older trees. Unfortunately, the Mackinac bridge connecting the mainland of MI to the UP would not be constructed for decades, so the only way to cross the lake was by ferry.

As one could imagine, it was an arduous trip where all of the day or days supplies would need to be brought over on the small boat. Small, yet crucial, tools would sometimes be forgotten on the other side of the lake forcing the rider of the ferry to hop back aboard to get his forgotten tools costing him time and wages, but the work simply could not be done without thenlm. The froe was one of these oft left tools, small as they are.

It wouldn't be uncommon for a woodworker to set foot on the shore of the UP, realize his blunder, spit, curse and stomp back on the boat to ride back to the mainland to thus ride BACK to the UP on the next ferry to retrieve the froe Mr Tuen had crafted for him. When a greenhorn would see this behavior, he would often ask one of the more senior workers where the angry man was headed. Their response was always the same. "Tuen froe".
 
Steely_Gunz said:
There is a long and storied history of the froe. Back in the mid to late 1870s Arthur Tuen set up a small blacksmith shop just east of Mackinac, MI. Due to the popular logging trade of the area, the froe was an indispensable tool for the wood cutters and wood workers of the area heading to the Upper Peninsula to harvest the larger, older trees. Unfortunately, the Mackinac bridge connecting the mainland of MI to the UP would not be constructed for decades, so the only way to cross the lake was by ferry.

As one could imagine, it was an arduous trip where all of the day or days supplies would need to be brought over on the small boat. Small, yet crucial, tools would sometimes be forgotten on the other side of the lake forcing the rider of the ferry to hop back aboard to get his forgotten tools costing him time and wages, but the work simply could not be done without thenlm. The froe was one of these oft left tools, small as they are.

It wouldn't be uncommon for a woodworker to set foot on the shore of the UP, realize his blunder, spit, curse and stomp back on the boat to ride back to the mainland to thus ride BACK to the UP on the next ferry to retrieve the froe Mr Tuen had crafted for him. When a greenhorn would see this behavior, he would often ask one of the more senior workers where the angry man was headed. Their response was always the same. "Tuen froe".
Click to expand...
Classic! You set it up perfect.--KV
 
eveled said:
This batoning thing got out of hand IMHO. Somehow it is the gold standard for knife quality now.

People turning their nose up at good quality stick tang knives and carrying sharpened leaf springs. I want a knife that is good at being a knife.

If I want to baton I’ll get a froe.

what say you?
Click to expand...


Well it all started awhile back with all of those hard use test videos, it was expected that we baton with any knife we would tested. Don't ask me why, it's just the way that it was.

Personally I just don't do it anymore even when I do test knives once in awhile these days as it really doesn't mean anything one way or the other.

Yes, perhaps in a real survival situation maybe if there wasn't any other choice as in smaller wood around that could be used. It is a risk to the tool in the end and if that knife is the only tool you have it's better to look for other choices.

That said it does require good technique to avoid damaging the tool.

Now these days that is the 1st thing those YT testers seem to do, baton the knife.

In the real world outside of testing I have never once had to baton a knife to get what I needed, not even once.

If someone really wants a knife and will be doing a lot of batoning then they really do need to get a full tang knife ideally. I wouldn't go pounding a $1,000 Custom knife with a stag handle and stick tang through a bunch of stuff. Not really made for it in the long run.
 
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How well a knife batons on appropriately sized wood is not a big deal to me. If I want to baton something, I'll do it. But it doesn't happen often. If I owned a BK-9, I'd baton with it as I have little use for a knife this size otherwise. I prefer my choppers a bit larger.
 
In all my years starting with the Boy Scouts and ending with the Military, I have never batoned with a knife. The only time I ever batoned anything was firewood for my wood stove in my basement with a machete, but that is just me.

That being said, to me the real test of a knife is if will shave hair after stabbing through a car door or chopping a concrete cinderblock in half.
 
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