Batoning?

I've never felt the need , but I can understand batoning as a wilderness survival technique . Maybe a knife is all you have available .

But it's kinda ridiculous to subject EVERY knife to batoning as a test of quality . Especially the extreme pounding torture some use .

Done properly , most decent knives can be used for emergency batoning .

Folders should be used with the lock disengaged to avoid damage .
 
In particular, it's a useful technique for crafting purposes when you need to split off a piece of a particular size or need to use a knife like a chisel for controlled cutting things like notches. It's much easier to use one hand to guide and one hand to gently tap-tap-tap the blade vs. using one hand to do both-you'll often end up with wibbly-wobblies if you try some cuts by just pushing the knife into the wood. If all you have is a light-duty knife and you need to split something big, use the knife to carve a wooden wedge and just use the knife to spread the initial wood fibers by scoring a line with it, then insert the wedge and drive that. :D
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
In particular, it's a useful technique for crafting purposes when you need to split off a piece of a particular size or need to use a knife like a chisel for controlled cutting things like notches. It's much easier to use one hand to guide and one hand to gently tap-tap-tap the blade vs. using one hand to do both-you'll often end up with wibbly-wobblies if you try some cuts by just pushing the knife into the wood. If all you have is a light-duty knife and you need to split something big, use the knife to carve a wooden wedge and just use the knife to spread the initial wood fibers by scoring a line with it, then insert the wedge and drive that. :D
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Yeah, done that more than a few times.
 
The Retired Marine said:
Only batoning videos I see are people who are given the knives for free to review. No REAL knife owner would treat his $200ish blade that way.

I learned in the Marines about the right tool for the right job. Chainsaws, axes and log splitters are pefrect tools for splitting wood.

Not one knife was used in the making of this video.
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Have fun taking a chainsaw or axe on a 25 mile hike or mountain climbing. When a 3 ounce knife and 6 ounce folding saw will accomplish nearly everything you need in any non freezing climate.

Also your comment is so pretentious. Who are you to say what a real knife owner does? No one is arguing an axe isnt the ideal tool for splitting wood...just that sometimes you dont want to carry one or it just isnt necessary.

And as far as that video...lol it tells us nothing relevant to this thread.
 
DocJD said:
I've never felt the need , but I can understand batoning as a wilderness survival technique . Maybe a knife is all you have available .

But it's kinda ridiculous to subject EVERY knife to batoning as a test of quality . Especially the extreme pounding torture some use .

Done properly , most decent knives can be used for emergency batoning .

Folders should be used with the lock disengaged to avoid damage .
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Has nothing at all to do with quality.

You can baton with a butter knife...
 
Dr Rez said:
Have fun taking a chainsaw or axe on a 25 mile hike or mountain climbing. When a 3 ounce knife and 6 ounce folding saw will accomplish nearly everything you need in any non freezing climate.

Also your comment is so pretentious. Who are you to say what a real knife owner does? No one is arguing an axe isnt the ideal tool for splitting wood...just that sometimes you dont want to carry one or it just isnt necessary.

And as far as that video...lol it tells us nothing relevant to this thread.
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I don't go on 25 mile hikes, and I live in a freezing climate. The OP asked what do we think about batoning, I gave my opinion.

Pretentious? I was referring to an individual who REALLY bought the knife with his own money and doesn't review a new knife every week batoning the shit out of it. Reading the posts in this thread, I'd say most ppl don't baton. I never heard of it till I watched a review on a Bark River Bravo 1 that I bought.

That video shows wood processed with the right tools. This is my version of batoning, aka splitting, which is relevant to the thread started by the OP. Sorry your panties got in a bunch.
 
The Retired Marine said:
I don't go on 25 mile hikes, and I live in a freezing climate. The OP asked what do we think about batoning, I gave my opinion.

Pretentious? I was referring to an individual who REALLY bought the knife with his own money and doesn't review a new knife every week batoning the shit out of it. Reading the posts in this thread, I'd say most ppl don't baton. I never heard of it till I watched a review on a Bark River Bravo 1 that I bought.
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You sound like an old man who is done learning new things or having an open mind.
 
The Retired Marine said:
I don't go on 25 mile hikes, and I live in a freezing climate. The OP asked what do we think about batoning, I gave my opinion.

Pretentious? I was referring to an individual who REALLY bought the knife with his own money and doesn't review a new knife every week batoning the shit out of it. Reading the posts in this thread, I'd say most ppl don't baton. I never heard of it till I watched a review on a Bark River Bravo 1 that I bought.

That video shows wood processed with the right tools. This is my version of batoning, aka splitting, which is relevant to the thread started by the OP. Sorry your panties got in a bunch.
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I doubt anyone would argue what the right tools for the job are, not really.

However there are in fact a number of us who have done a lot of reviews that actually did buy the knives that we tested. I bought almost all of the ones I tested over the decades and it runs into the mid to high 100's of knives that I have ran in various tests. Some of those knives as in a lot of them cost in the $400 range and much higher.

I basically stopped testing about 10 years ago personally, at least that type of testing anyway and I don't do any YT videos anymore that are knife related.

NOW.

For those who do test we are/were required to baton them as part of the testing process because that was what people wanted to see.

In real life outside of testing I never needed to baton a knife for firewood. That includes before I went into the USMC, when I was in the USMC and after I got out until this day.

I have been using knives for the better part of 50 years now.

That's not to say that in a real survival situation if I really needed to I wouldn't carefully do it as needed because I defiantly would.
 
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The Retired Marine said:
Only batoning videos I see are people who are given the knives for free to review. No REAL knife owner would treat his $200ish blade that way.
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I am a real knife owner.
I also baton my knives when I feel like it...but I don't break them because I know what I'm doing (don't judge batonning by what some YouTube video shows).

And yes, many of the knives I baton with cost more than $200. ;)

Photobucket butchered these pics, but the day we went to the woods for this outing there was no dry wood anywhere. Batonning was the only way to get anything dry.

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/the-hills-are-alive-with-the-sound-of-bushcraft.1302950/

Flood warnings, and there were indeed floods in all the areas surrounding us.
Guess we could have stayed at home, but the point of the day was getting fire going when that was not an easy thing to do.

Main knife used was one I made, and I defy anyone who is not huge, green and radioactive to break it. :D


Many other outings there has been no need to split anything, as dry wood was abundant. Sometimes it can be handy though.
 
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It is just another possible use of a knife as long as you don't take it to extremes. I seldom build fires in the woods. If I am car camping, I usually have multiple cutting tool options with me and some are along for the fun of it. I do feel the need for a good small hatchet to add to my tool assortment. I have been known to carry a cross cut saw car camping... :D (when I know there is big stuff to break down for a fire)
 
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22-rimfire said:
It is just another possible use of a knife as long as you don't take it to extremes. I seldom build fires in the woods. If I am car camping, I usually have multiple cutting tool options with me and some are along for the fun of it. I do feel the need for a good small hatchet to add to my tool assortment. I have been known to carry a cross cut saw car camping... :D
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Saws really speed things up a lot. :)
 
I enjoy batoning with a knife to process wood for a fire. I don't get the snobbery against it. Why do people care what other people do when enjoying their knives? And if you think a knife that batons well isn't good at being a knife, then you are using the wrong knives.
 
I baton all of my fixed blades for firewood processing. So much easier then using an axe, especially for kindling. If you know what you’re doing and have a quality knife, no problem.
 
I think its natural and ok to take an item to its limits, just to know its limits. I do not think, however, that batoning is the end all be all test. It does have its use, it does, in the end, show which knife can stand up to a brutal beating if you need a knife that can stand up to a brutal beating. There are lots of knives that fail the test rather quickly yet market themselves as tough and on the flip side, many cheap knives have passed the batoning test..so its not a useless test by any means but also not indicative of a knife's quality.

Of course, I want a knife that can tear down a concrete building if the need arises, just to have such a knife.
 
I would NEVER use any of my knives for batoning, regardless of whether they can handle it or not. Thats what axes and hatchets are for.


The only time Id consider batoning would be if I were lost 20 miles into the middle of the forest with just my knife, and absolutely had to in a survival situation.
Which will never happen. Can always find my way back: the woods arent that extensive here in eastern Masachusetts lol
 
slyraven said:
I think its natural and ok to take an item to its limits, just to know its limits. I do not think, however, that batoning is the end all be all test. It does have its use, it does, in the end, show which knife can stand up to a brutal beating if you need a knife that can stand up to a brutal beating. There are lots of knives that fail the test rather quickly yet market themselves as tough and on the flip side, many cheap knives have passed the batoning test..so its not a useless test by any means but also not indicative of a knife's quality.

Of course, I want a knife that can tear down a concrete building if the need arises, just to have such a knife.
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I think a Busse might work for this task as I believe a member here has taken a car apart with one of their blades. I've also seen a video of a Fallkniven A1 Pro model baton and split wood like a small ax with no problems at all.
 
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