Breaking blade while batoning

LWILLIAMS

LWILLIAMS

Joined
Jul 5, 2010
Messages
181
I just want to know the odds of breaking like a 5 or 6 while batoning. I use my RTAK II while batoning and worry sometimes. Is there any way in hell that one of these blades will break or am I just worrying. If you have ever broken one while batoning I want to hear it. I am talking just knife in the wood beating on it with wood, no super hard contacts.
 
It would be hard to state odds, but based on the number of broken ones we have seen posted up and the number of units we might estimate that were sold to people that baton frequently....I would say the odds are pretty low.

There are measures you can take to further skew the odds in the favor of breakage if you want. Some ways to shatter the blade I can think of involve batoning with a HARD baton, or baton the knife into something HARD.

A hammer on hardened steel will often result in fracture. Frozen wood can be quite hard if the conditions are right.

That said, I have yet to see a 5 broken...but I am not all seeing and knowing obviously...
 
I've never had a problem with either the 5 or 6.
It is a lot easier with the 6 tho, because of the full flat grind vs the 5's sabre grind.
 
Honestly, depending on the media you're batoning, slim to none.

Moose
 
Seems highly unlikely unless,

1) The blade is extremely cold and your subject extremely hard (warm blade up to avoid such problems.)
2) You've been using a chop saw to modify your blade.
3) You've been keeping the 5 underneath projects on your drill press.
4) Your buddy Thor is helping out by batoning with Mjolner
 
It's pretty rare that we get a 6 back from breaking while being batoned, but it can indeed happen. Remember, batoning any knife is really abuse although we all do it and expect our blades to handle it. But depending on the wood, grain, knots and what might be embedded, there are a lot of strange forces at play when you baton a knife. Someone posted a pict thread up of a 6 being batoned through Oak. Take a look at the that thread and you will see why a knfie can and will break under certain conditions.
 
The only time I have personally ever seen any fixed blade massively fracture was from batoning. BUT, it was under what I consider stupid conditions. Nearly frozen through wood, a really hard frozen baton, and an idiot behind the wheel. He kept hitting the knife at a non-right angle, thus giving a serious side load. After a few minutes sure enough, crack. Everyone watching said hey stop that idiot you will break a nice knife, and he did. There is nothing common about common sense. Use your brain and love your knife and it will be fine. If something feels wrong it probably is, stop reassess the situation and proceed in a revised manner.
 
Never had the smallest complaint from my 6. In fact, it's my batoning workhorse. :D
 
I have battoned through some really "ugly" wood, in a "need to" get it done time with my 6 and it survived, but like already stated you have to use your head and know when enough is enough.... I LOVE my 6 :thumbup:;) its perfect.
 
R.A.T. said:
It's pretty rare that we get a 6 back from breaking while being batoned, but it can indeed happen. Remember, batoning any knife is really abuse although we all do it and expect our blades to handle it. But depending on the wood, grain, knots and what might be embedded, there are a lot of strange forces at play when you baton a knife. Someone posted a pict thread up of a 6 being batoned through Oak. Take a look at the that thread and you will see why a knfie can and will break under certain conditions.
Click to expand...

Just to take this thought a bit further.

I used to cut a lot of lumber and it was not uncommon to find stones included in the trunks of some trees. Another fairly common find is bits of steel embedded (generally pretty common if the tree was growing where a fence line was).

Smaller trees (like what most people would generally attempt to process with a knife) are a lot less likely to contain these surprises, but it is possible.

Getting into a healthy knot is more likely. You would be surprised the lateral stresses knotted wood poses on a knife being batoned through it.
 
I've been batoning for as long as I can remember and I have only broken 1 blade.Middle of summer and the wood was a 16" board in my back yard.The knife just wasn't up to the challenge.
However.....I seem to remember a certain flat ground 4" 1095 blade right out of the bag batoning through an entire frozen small birch tree.
I guess not all knives are created equal.
 
Using proper techniques, common sense, and only doing what is neccessary will decrease chances of failure.
So, don't think you have bicect every piece of wood. You can take smaller parts off the edges.
Keep your handle higher than the tip, and don't press down while using the baton.
Like mentioned before, hit the spine at a 90 degree angle, down that is.
 
I can imagine that some put lots of pressure on the handle while hitting it. I've had to watch myself from doing it. Hold the handle, but there's no need to put your body weight on it. Let the knife do the work.
 
Being smart about what you’re splitting, how you’re holding the knife and where you are impacting the blade with the baton generally doesn’t cause a problem so I’d say pretty low.

Now if you are holding the knife with the tip up at a 45 degree angle, through frozen knotty oak and beating on the last 1/2” of the tip with an oversized baton, might have a problem there.
 
The oak thread pretty much tells me everything. Here in wyoming we have little to no hardwood so everything I will be splitting is either pine, birch or cedar. I am pretty sure I am safe. I dont think I have ever given any of my knives the workout that frozen oak did to the 6.
 
Only emergency or certain conditions should warrants batoning wood with a knife. It's guaranteed that the knife will get scuffs/marks on the spine from batoning and possibly breaking as what RAT mentioned but use the right tool for crying out loud i.e. a chainsaw or an axe. It's okay to baton a knife if you are curious how the knife performs but to have it replaced because someone decided to beat the crap out of the knife is pure craziness (sorry I don't know how to spell rediculous at this point). I know Jeff/Mike will disagree and still replace the knife under no question asked warranty policy but I will be ashamed to even ask for a replacement if I break a knife under extreme usage. I will send it in for research purposes but not for replacement, yes maybe a decal or a T-shirt for the effort. As far as I know knives are meant for cutting, slicing, stabbing, skinning and yes chopping using the right knife of course but chopping a tree trunk in half? Axe was invented for that reason.

p.s. Sorry.... I am still mad about that picture where a knife was returned because it had scuffing marks from batoning. Carry on.....
 
Last edited:
I think that heavy baton work was one of the reasons the AF SERE instructors wanted that thick saber ground blade for the ESEE-5. They will be doing a lot of abuse.
 
Horn Dog said:
I think that heavy baton work was one of the reasons the AF SERE instructors wanted that thick saber ground blade for the ESEE-5. They will be doing a lot of abuse.
Click to expand...

No question about that since the knife was designed to be used for that purpose
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top