battoning your survival knife

SouthernCross said:
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
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+1.

try it on some gidyea wood and see how it goes :)

personally, i expect my knife (fallkniven S1) to be able to handle battoning duties when required.

however, i don't head bush planning on using my knives in such a way. for heavy duty chopping and log splitting, i prefer a hatchet. currently just a cheap $20 job from the hardware store which i will upgrade to a Wetterlings or similar in due course.

if i'm ever completely stuffed up and all i have is the S1, yeah sure, i'll baton away with it. no problems. but as a week-in, week-out option, i'll use the hatchet thanx.
 
G'day Brian

mistwalker said:
Sweetgum is a good one, h#ll axes bounce off of it till it has over-seasoned lol.
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Not being fammiliar with "Sweetgum", I did a bit of a google search.

Are you referring to Liquidambar styraciflua, what we call Liquidamber over here?

I genuinely mean no disrespect, but with an average Janka hardness of 850, I'm surprised it's classed as a hardwood.

When a large number of our Eucalypts rank well over 2,000 on the Janka hardness scale, you can see what we Aussies mean by Hardwoods :D




Kind regards
Mick
 
SouthernCross said:
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
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No offense taken, I thought the first test should be an easy one. I don't get into the woods as often as I like, but next time I go the junker is going to get a better challenge. I guess I could have tried to hammer it through some steel, but I seem to recall someone trying that before... :)

(by the way, I just have to ask. Is your name really Mick, because if it is that is kinda awesome)
 
Havokk said:
Really? You have obviously never hit an Australian hardwood power pole with an axe...
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There are just some woods a knife or machete just should not be used on I agree with you. No disrespect to others, but here (South Africa) we get whats commonly known as 'hardehout' or hardwood. These include:

Leadwood: 1200kg/m3
Knob thorn: 1120kg/m3
Mopane: 1250kg/m3
Wild Olive: 1100kg/m3
Red bushwillow: 1230kg/m3

These trees make great fire wood, but there is no way I will be batonning through these boys. They sink when thrown into water. On the farm we dont even use axes any more. We bought diamond tipped saws and cutters. Other wise they take to long.

Another tree we are really struggling with due to it increasing the bush density thanks to improper management on farms is the Sickle bush. (960kg/m3). You can cut and cut and cut and think you are winning and after the first rains it just jumps up again. Nothing can eat it enough to stop it from spreading and if left can overtake a open plain and stop any good hunter from going through the sucker. It still has ecological value, but damn, its to much on some farms that animals cant move through a area.

Went a bit off topic sorry guys. All my info is from a book called 'Benut ons Inheemse Bome' that discuss the traditional uses of South African trees and their importance. Written by Fanie & Juley-Ann Venter. Management techniques are taken from personal experience and Game & Hunt magazine vol 16/7 July 2010.
 
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