Battoning across the grain

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DocNightfall

Joined
Nov 20, 2006
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Is it knife abuse to batton sideways through small trees (around 4" diameter) on a regular basis?

Just curious.
 
I wouldn't call it knife abuse, 'less of course it's Paki Frost- that would be abusing something, maybe several somethings.
 
It shouldn't for a well made fixed blade. Is a lot of work though. I would wonder about the efficiency of doing that.
 
Many well-made knives are tough and sharp but have poor chopping ability due to weight distribution.

I've found it to be far more efficient than trying to chop with just the knife. I've just been worried that I may have been increasing the probability for my knife to break at an inopportune time.
 
I wouldn't be worried so much about the blade breaking than about energy expenditure. 4" is getting kind of big. For something like that it is far more efficient to carry a tool that was meant for chopping....like an axe or a golok for that matter....or better yet, carry a small folding saw.

I think this is another prime example of the whole batoning issue. Batoning isn't really that hard on a decent fixed blade, but just because you can, doesn't mean you should. There are other things you should be concerned about in the woods, efficiency being among the most important. Even if the knife couldn't care less, it doesn't mean that it is the right tool for the job.
 
Cut a notch and try and snap the tree instead of taking the blade through the whole 4"...
 
Im new to battoning but seems like I read that you work around tree / limb then try to break it off. But then thats going to depend on the size of the tree and how deep you are able to cut. but if you have a 3" tree and are able to get a 1" cut all around then now your only dealing with a 1" tree to break.
 
Well, that is precisely what I meant, it's not that it can not be done...question is whether this is an efficient way of doing it. Sure, if you have nothing but your knife that's the way to do it, but by the time you have notched one tree all around you could probably have felled 3 trees with a little saw. I am all for batoning, and I don't see it in any way as abuse of the knife, but it still leaves the responsibility with you to employ it in a smart way and to recognize when other tools would be more appropriate. Last thing you usually want to do when setting up camp or building a fire is wasting time. Splitting a 4" log by batoning is pretty efficient and quick, because you get pretty easily started and after that the wood unzips almost by itself (provided you avoid knots, another smart thing to do, when you can). Batoning 4" across the grain simply doesn't seem very efficient to me. If you find a 4" standing dead tree that you want to use for firewood and use it without bothering to find deadfall to get the fire started (or in the absense of dry deadfall), you would want to make mulitple cuts through the tree and it gets to be a real chore. Its just nothing that you would want to do on a regular basis, regardless of whether the knife can take it or not. Of course just my $0.02.
 
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