Batoning?

Well. To that I would add that we all carry a knife on every day basis. But we do not carry axe or hatchet every time with us. I would say that the knife that I carry should be able to do some kind of battoning (obviously not large logs).

Sometimes you can get in sticky situation and only thing you have on you is a knife. Good knife can give you shelter, heat, safe water, food, protection etc.
 
I am usually a language pedant. If there is already a word that means something, I want to use it rather than a new made-up word or an existing word with a different meaning that people have hijacked. Lots of examples in business and management that make me grind my teeth :rolleyes:😄

If there was already a word that efficiently conveyed the idea of beating on the spine of a knife with a short wooden stick or club to split or cut wood, I would use it, but there doesn’t seem to be anything. So “batoning” gets the job done. ;)
 
I sometimes demo bushcraft knife use to kids, around 11yo, who don’t have experience or much hand strength. For putting points on 3/4”ish diameter hazel sticks for stakes, or notches for hangers, I get them to work together in pairs to use a 1” baton on the Mora Companion knives. One holds the wood, one operates the knife and baton. Quickly get three sided points on sticks….hence unpopular with 11year olds who prefer to spend 20 minutes whittling at the end of one stick :)
 
My usual go-to for "is this a word" is an internet search engine. Dictionaries have long ago ceased to be the cutting edge of language. Language, culture and technology seem to all advance first on the internet. We all have phones and computers on us or near us all day long.

en.wikipedia.org

Batoning - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Convince Wikipedia to take their page down, and I will concede that it is not a word.
 
I think batoning has its place, even though an axe or a hatchet could maybe do a better job in general. For instance, I baton small logs (2-3 inches round) with a camp knife for kindling/small fuel for the family fireplace. In my experience (and maybe I’m just lacking skills) a 2 inch diameter log is difficult to split into 2-4 pieces with an axe or hatchet safely, due to it not being able to be stood on end and also offering a small target
 
at first, I saw no reason to even attempt it.
then one day, I was opening a bag of charcoal with my Ontario Carter Prime, and getting ready to use a stick of fatwood to start the charcoal. I figured, I dont need this whole bit of fatwood......so i grabbed my grilling spatula and tap, tap, tapped the blade through the fatwood.

and now I do it everytime.

but I don't see it as a viable option for processing any real amount of wood or larger pieces and I'm certiainly not striking the spine of the knife with any real force.
 
l1ranger said:
at first, I saw no reason to even attempt it.
then one day, I was opening a bag of charcoal with my Ontario Carter Prime, and getting ready to use a stick of fatwood to start the charcoal. I figured, I dont need this whole bit of fatwood......so i grabbed my grilling spatula and tap, tap, tapped the blade through the fatwood.

and now I do it everytime.

but I don't see it as a viable option for processing any real amount of wood or larger pieces and I'm certiainly not striking the spine of the knife with any real force.
Click to expand...
This is the way
 
Just to explain how I use a hatchet to split small wood.
My hatchets are sharp. They are for small cutting tasks, not chopping down trees. They are generally smaller that an average hatchet with a 12"-14" handle and a 3"-3.5" wide bit. I agree that swinging this at a small log being held by the other hand is inviting stitches. My go-to is an old Eastwing Sportsman that I keep very sharp.

I set the hatchet on the piece of wood to be split and hit it with another piece of wood. Usually, I am reducing chainsaw cut logs I already split with a regular axe and the pieces are roughly 3"X2" wedges. Sometimes it is 2"-3" branches I cut for firewood. The wood splits easily this way. I can reduce it to thin kindling if needed.

I have batoned my knife while camping in my younger days many times. I have also broken a blade doing it.
I agree that a camp knife with a thick spine that is properly tempered should be fine for using a baton on the spine. But, I think that most knives that get batoned are smaller than a camp knife and not made to be struck through a piece of wood.
Obviously, in an emergency when you have no other resource buy your trusty Buck 110, you will do what you need to do. That doesn't mean it is always a good idea.
 
daily_grind said:
My usual go-to for "is this a word" is an internet search engine. Dictionaries have long ago ceased to be the cutting edge of language. Language, culture and technology seem to all advance first on the internet. We all have phones and computers on us or near us all day long.

en.wikipedia.org

Batoning - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Convince Wikipedia to take their page down, and I will concede that it is not a word.
Click to expand...
wiki is a "people's encyclopedia". anybody can add anything to it. It's interesting and has some usefulness but it's far from being a definitive source for anything.
 
daily_grind said:
My usual go-to for "is this a word" is an internet search engine. Dictionaries have long ago ceased to be the cutting edge of language. Language, culture and technology seem to all advance first on the internet. We all have phones and computers on us or near us all day long.

en.wikipedia.org

Batoning - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Convince Wikipedia to take their page down, and I will concede that it is not a word.
Click to expand...
I just checked the Oxford dictionary. And it is in there as well.
 
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Subjectivity is undiscussable. Use what you like. All else is marketing. Don't fall in the trap. Custom makers will make you what ever you want.
 
knarfeng said:
wiki is a "people's encyclopedia". anybody can add anything to it. It's interesting and has some usefulness but it's far from being a definitive source for anything.
Click to expand...
Sure, Wikipedia is sort of a grass roots thing ... but language is too. Language is something that evolves over time. We don't speak the King's English anymore, because people express themselves in new and surprising ways all of the time. Did we receive English from the King of England? Can our English-speaking rights be revoked? Did I elect someone to an English-correctness committee? Is slang forbidden, and perhaps punishable by fine?

I'd say English-speakers collectively decide how they want to express themselves, and Dictionary writers are always trying to catch up. I'll bet there were many very upset white-wig-wearing people who fumed at the elimination of "thee" and "thou" from the common vernacular.

(edit: I'll also bet that nobody here wondered "what is batoning" ... we may or may not like the word, or what it represents, but we likely all knew exactly what I was talking about, even though we didn't conspire before hand to associate an action with a collection of letters)
 
not2sharp said:
It is time to forget about batoning and move on to carrying a proper ignition tool. :p


N2s
Click to expand...
This was always my favorite way of lighting fires: liquid oxygen ... I heard about this stunt after the group did it, it turned the BBQ grill into a bubbling pool of molten steel.
 
Does nobody carry a froe and mallet when camping/bushcrafting?!
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This discussion is always a fun one, though the arguments are typically more for or against, and not so much the spelling and word usage. :D
Is a hatchet a better tool? I suppose. Personally, if I have to split smaller pieces of wood with a hatchet, I hold the piece that I'm splitting with the end of another piece of wood, to keep my hands safely out of the way, if that makes sense.
All that said, I think the average camp or hunting knife should be able to take a few whacks on the spine without breaking into pieces. Just be aware that some wood splits more easily than others, and there are limitations. If you're planning on building a lot of fires, I think a small hatchet is probably going to be worth the extra weight.
 
So this 14C28N knife, 62 RC and 0.138 inch spine, has been used for 2 years as our firewood cleaver in front of the wood stove. It is used to baton wood at least 2 times per day from October into April. This means the knife has been battoned 800-1000+ sessions.

We have tried a hatchet in front of the wood stove but the cleaver is much preferred.

 
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