battoning your survival knife

Triton said:
Unless there's a flaw in the blade.
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To me that would be a good reason to pound the hell out of the knife in a non-survival situation.

Utican said:
Why are there so many videos of guys doing this?
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I'll be none of those videos were taken in a survival situation, I doubt anyone would waste time making a video if their life was in serious risk.

I've wailed on my BK-7 & on my KA-BAR Kukri Machete with batons - neither suffered any hint of damage from it, I'm guessing they could take much more. There is a video from Noss where he destroys a BK-9, but I wouldn't do what he does to any of my knives so I am not worried about breakage. Trying to hammer a knife through steel IS crazy, splitting wood with good steel just isn't that extreme.
 
It must have been the blades you were using as a kid. I can baton with a 15 dollar Mora knife. It is really common to baton wood with a knife in a camping or survival scenario. There are other knives out on the market that make batoning and chopping easy.
 
such a long thread. For most of my life I thought battoning was something cheerleaders did and sticks used to strike splitting tools were called mauls. when I was a kid I had a JPN copy of the Buck skinner model. I recall it was extremely thick. Snapped like an icicle. I know now it was likely poor QC of bad HT made to sell cheap_ly nevertheless I still don't like SS.

If you work the spine to a sharp 90 degree angle for use with your fire steel does it cause excessive wear to the maul/baton?:thumbup::rolleyes::thumbdn:
 
I have used my knife to baton thru some wood. It is a valid skill to have and practice for all of the above responses. I don't much care to do it. I like to try and protect my edge. If the edge is gone and you don't have a way to sharpen it, well it makes a good wedge. They say a man without a knife is a dead man. If I break my knife, or it isn't cutting as it should , it does not allow me to use my knife in other applications. The skill does impress people who have never seen it before. I just use my kukri to baton. My knife is for finer applications. You might consider a small folding saw for carry. You can split wood with a saw. You saw half way through the wood. Hold one end and give it a sharp wack on something and it will split. Keep doing that to get smaller pieces of wood. Use your knife for some fuzz sticks from the dry inner wood. Just a thought.
 
stabman said:
Statistics also show that most people don't plan on getting in messed up situations.:eek:
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Most people don't plan for anything out of the ordinary. Even everyday things like opening packages or a simple headache are overlooked.

Running out of gas in a desolate area or a house fire? Won't happen to me. Ever. I have good karma and stuff.
 
Briarbrow said:
If you work the spine to a sharp 90 degree angle for use with your fire steel does it cause excessive wear to the maul/baton?:thumbup::rolleyes::thumbdn:
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Yes, but. . .


Who cares?

The baton is nothing more than the last piece of wood you're going to throw in the fire.
 
heh maybe one would be the last burned, but someone has to look after the devalued billets of this world.
Surely you can see; knowing their end fortune only makes them more humble. I for one would prefer to see spines de-burred, even rounded over in tribute to such short lived, but useful service
( smiley say: hmm?:rolleyes:):D
 
I thought that I would do some experimenting on this subject, but since I don't have the funds to test quality knives I thought I go the other direction and use the crappiest knife I had lying around to do some typical survival tasks. If it survives then anything should.

Note: I am not trying to pull a NOSS and intentionally beat a knife into submission, I want to see what a cheap knife is capable of. If it survives everything I'd be surprised, but I wouldn't complain

Today's task: Light batoning (hence the location in this thread) to build a figure 4 trap.

The victim.
Victim.jpg

Stats:
Faberware crappy chef's knife
Steel= ????
Tang: Practically non-existent. The rivets are cosmetic.

Batoning with the grain. I used a piece of 1.5" PVC pipe as a baton. The wood is comercial pine.
Batonwithgrain.jpg

The knife did a number of splits with the grain, no sweat.

Batoning against the grain.
Batonagainstgrain.jpg

There is no usable edge on this knife. That will have to be remedied somehow for future tasks. For today all notches were cut by batoning the blade into the wood.

The results.
Results.jpg


The crap knife survived its first task!
 
Briarbrow said:
If you work the spine to a sharp 90 degree angle for use with your fire steel does it cause excessive wear to the maul/baton?:thumbup::rolleyes::thumbdn:
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My BK-7 has a nice sharp & square spine.

Batoning this is easy enough:
IMG_8442.JPG


See, the wood splits along the grain easily (to the right is the baton):
IMG_8444.JPG


The baton is on the right, the bark has been damaged but the wood is still pretty much intact:
IMG_8445.JPG


This much wood didn't destroy the baton, it could have easily done this much again (the same goes for the knife):
IMG_8446.JPG


The baton is free and expendable, it isn't hard to find another suitable baton lying around. A piece of wood that is free and will be thrown on the camp fire when you are finished with it isn't something that I spend time worrying about. Whenever I can find wood that I want to split with a knife I can also find wood that can perform the job of hitting the knife to drive it through the other wood. Whenever I can't find wood to serve as a baton there is also no wood to split, so I don't need the baton anyway. It kinda works out really well.

I think that my BK-7 would be my favourite batoning knife, I have other knives for chopping (BK-9, KA-BAR Kukri Machete & HI Ganga RAM) but the BK-7 is a really nice size and shape for the job of spitting up the wood that the others have cut.
Some more pics for those interested in the choppers:
http://www.gigatech.co.nz/Knives/Camping 2/IMG_8416.JPG
http://www.gigatech.co.nz/Knives/Camping 2/IMG_8422.JPG
http://www.gigatech.co.nz/Knives/Camping 2/IMG_8423.JPG
http://www.gigatech.co.nz/Knives/Camping 2/IMG_8425.JPG
http://www.gigatech.co.nz/Knives/Camping 2/IMG_8428.JPG

BTW:
I only go camping to play with my knives! ;):p:D:thumbup:
 
I guess I found it funny to express concern for the "baton" in a thread about concern for the blade. I had no intention to be mean with my silly sarcasm or dismiss the Op's concerns.
However, I really do like wood and wooden things so I hope you at least intend to glue and bandage that bark back where it belongs before burning
 
SouthernCross said:
G'day CototePhysics


I mean no disrespect to yourself or to others who only have access to softwoods, but straight grained pine is really no test of a blade :D

Kind regards
Mick
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Sweetgum is a good one, h#ll axes bounce off of it till it has over-seasoned lol.
 
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