You know, I have never once had to trade off carrying somebody out of the mountains who'd split their foot down the middle with a knife. I have, however, had to carry somebody out of the mountains with a split foot...wanna guess what the offending tool was?
This is not to imply that axes are too dangerous, mind you, but merely that any tool that's not controlled properly is a liability.
The Buck 650 is absurdly tough---the hollow grind is not (as has been mentioned) the best for this use in terms of actually inducing the wood to split properly, but this particular hollow grind is ground so thick that fragility isn't a concern. Where you're more likely to run into trouble is actually using a baton successfully on it, as the sharply sloping spine and swedge grind are going to be both difficult to hit well and hard on your baton. Still, cave men managed it with tapered rocks, so with some dedicated effort you can manage it. Keep the handle above the point at all times, vigorously tap with your baton as opposed to wailing on it as though trying to beat a rhino to death, and keep yourself out from under it!
I successfully batoned 1/16" Old Hickory butcher knives to split firewood for years and years before this forum was around and before I knew to refer to it as "batoning" (in the old days it was, "tapping the knife through wood with a stick") and never came up with any damage.
Those who argue so much against batoning have never, ever been able to answer this question, though I've posed it dozens of times as this subject has come up: What, precisely, is the purpose of thick-bladed knives if you are supposed to use them in exactly the same way that you'd use an exacto knife? Hmmm? If a knife is ONLY supposed to open envelopes, trim cuticles and occasionally spread butter (so long as it isn't too cold/firm and hence dangerous) than why do 1/4" thick spines and saber grinds exist? I mean, compared to a paper thin, flat ground blade they don't fillet a fish very well, do they? Or slice cheese. So why, for centuries, have such implements existed? Please, do tell me.
Slicing is cutting, scraping is cutting, dicing is cutting, and chopping is cutting. You're using a sharp object to separate another object into more pieces than it was in when you found it. There are many tactical knives out there that have edge profiles more robust than many quality axes, and there's nothing magical about the word "axe" than imbues a sharp piece of steel with more toughness than another sharp piece of steel that's called a "knife." More steel at the edge equals more strength at the edge, period. Can you damage a knife batoning? Yes. On the other hand, I've batoned (with hammers, no less) chisels through very hard wood with edge profiles that are FAR thinner than any factory knife, and so have millions of other people. The secret is being in control of what you're doing. People who know and are proficient with their tools won't damage them, regardless of use. People who aren't in control----well, I'm certainly not going to suggest to them that they'll be safer swinging an axe!
Does an axe beat a knife in chopping/splitting/moving wood? Of course it does--its geometry and balance are tailored to it. And a chainsaw beats an axe. And an industrial chainsaw beats a regular chainsaw. And not going out into the woods at all to build makeshift shelters and camp fires to cook on, but rather staying inside of real shelter with a microwave beats all of that crap. I mean, come on, by the time I've paid for my hunting/fishing licenses and all of the requisite gear that goes along with them I could eat several times in a damned fine restaurant, if we're being purely practical. But lets face it, outdoor adventuring of any kind at all is hardly ever about practicality, it's about fun. Some out there have more fun swinging a knife than an axe, and some prefer the other. Those swinging an axe are going to get farther moving wood. Those not carrying an axe are going to get farther down the trail. Both are capable of doing WAY more damage than they need to do in order to thrive in the scrub, especially for the unfortunately-few days that most any of us can actually get free to go and do it. You don't need to fell trees in order to camp. If you NEED wood that's greater than 3" in diameter, you're doing something wrong. And, at that size, you can split it with a slipjoint--but it's far safer to do it with a fixed blade.
Those who don't want to use a knife to baton, fine. I personally don't want to use a perfectly beautiful expanse of sloping grassland to golf. That said, there are plenty of others who do and there's really no point in my constantly trying to convince them that they're wrong for doing it.
