so, got to do some batonning with the finn wolf last night. I got to drive past this looooooooong line of fenced in houses that consitutes a church compound out in roy washington... I'm really curious what the name of the place is, cause it's pretty dang creepy seeing a half mile of pristene houses fenced in with wire and all for a
half mile when your out in the middle of no where. so much in the middle of no where that people were fireing off shot guns at 1am... apperently to shoot possum.
the finn wolf did very well in my eyes, since my expectations for it (being cold steel, being stainless, and being half tang) were fairly low, reasonable for what it is. at first I used another log to hit the tip and handle, but it was difficult to handle them with any force and precision with the edges of the wood, so I switched to a 2' long 1.5" thick wooden dowell. the group I was with was trying to build a teepee style bonfire out of wet wood, so I was trying to spread the fire out from the base so the wood that was drying at the edges would get to burn, and they had no kindling otherwise.
having beat on the ricasso area of the plastic handle for 30 minutes with a wooden dowell, the handle did just fine with no visible damage, and the tang stayed solidly there without producing any wiggle or gaps.
The blade tip however did end up bending. I pulled the knife out on the one large knot I was working around everytime it got to it, and just splintered off what wood I had cut down rather then try to drive it through, but I was still hammering on the tip at an angle for a short bit each time I got to it. the result was that the tip was bent by as much as 10 degree's from where the taper started. I beat it back, and took some plyers to it and it's straight again without to much effort. The edge held up well, though it needs a sharpening now. I'm going to see if light steeling and a ceramic rod will be enough. most of the damage is at the tip, but I think thats because I glanced the rock I was working on more then anything the wood did or any inclusions in the bark.
The long hunter would have done much better, becuase it was longer and the tip isn't as thin. and being as thick, taller, and full flat, there is more supporting metal throughout the geometry, without the ridge at the end of the hollow grind to provide extra friction. so to answer the question, I would feel comfortable doing extended batoning with the long hunter, I'd just be careful while doing it, for fear of slamming the tip when it was at an angle.
I was using the fin wolf because it's the shorter, more sheeple friendly blade, so thats the one I edc. A drawback of the finn wolf: everyone thinks I'm carrying around a steak knife. Thats not necessarily bad, because people known steak knives, they don't think of them as "weapons", it's more like I'm so poor I'm carrying around a kitchen knife to do daily chores. But it is kinda demeaning having person after person comment "why do you carry around a steak knife?"
