How many of you have stopped batoning?

I live in Southern California. Here the trick is not finding dry wood. It's finding any kind of wood at all, and a place where it is legal to collect it and burn it.

I'd never even heard of "batoning" until I started hanging out here.
 
knarfeng said:
I live in Southern California. Here the trick is not finding dry wood. It's finding any kind of wood at all, and a place where it is legal to collect it and burn it.

I'd never even heard of "batoning" until I started hanging out here.
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Serious question, Frank- what do you do when you’re camping without a fire to watch?
 
I basically exclusively baton when making kindling while car camping, or using the firepit at home. Why swing two pounds worth of hatchet towards your toes if you don't have to? I find batoning with my Froe to be much safer/controllable. 🤷‍♂️

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91bravo said:
Batoning has been around for a long long time, especially in other countries
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True. Batoning has been around for at least 500~600 years.
However, until very recently, as in the post Internet 1990's, Batoning was done with a froe or drawknife/spokeshave, no matter what country you care to mention, not a knife.
The right tool for the job is not necessarily a heavy "overbuilt" "knife" that weighs as much or more than a belt axe or hatchet, or a tomahawk, and weighs considerably more than a froe or drawknife/spokeshave.
 
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afishhunter said:
True. Batoning has been around for at least 500~600 years.
However, until very recently, as in the post Internet 1990's, Batoning was done with a froe or drawknife/spokeshave, no matter what country you care to mention, not a knife.
The right tool for the job is not necessarily a heavy "overbuilt" "knife" that weighs as much or more than a belt axe or hatchet, or a tomahawk, and weights considerably more than a froe or drawknife/spokeshave.
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Wrong. Southeastern countries have been batining with knives for as long as I can remember. I’ve visited 4 countries in Southeast Asia and most people don’t own axes. Batoning there, is just a way of life to make kindling for fire.
 
afishhunter said:
However, until very recently, as in the post Internet 1990's, Batoning was done with a froe or drawknife/spokeshave, no matter what country you care to mention, not a knife.
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I feel bad for the person using a spokeshave to split wood. Seems like it’s not the right tool for the job.
q2kSoTD.jpg

Mora makes a splitting knife that looks like a draw knife, but typical draw knives aren’t the right tool either. Here’s a video from our very own FortyTwoBlades FortyTwoBlades using a splitting knife.

 
91bravo said:
Wrong. Southeastern countries have been batining with knives for as long as I can remember. I’ve visited 4 countries in Southeast Asia and most people don’t own axes. Batoning there, is just a way of life to make kindling for fire.
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A froe isn't an axe. Neither is a drawknife
 
afishhunter said:
A froe isn't an axe. Neither is a drawknife
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Nobody said those were axes. You said that an axe or a draw knife was always used to baton with, no matter what country you were in. I’m saying that in Southeast Asia, people use knives or machetes to split wood and it’s very common in day to day life. It’s not like they are splitting rounds, they are making kindling. It’s what we call batoning here in the US.
 
EngrSorenson said:
I feel bad for the person using a spokeshave to split wood. Seems like it’s not the right tool for the job.
q2kSoTD.jpg

Mora makes a splitting knife that looks like a draw knife, but typical draw knives aren’t the right tool either. Here’s a video from our very own FortyTwoBlades FortyTwoBlades using a splitting knife.

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Sorry, the spokeshave I was thinking of is like the Mora 42 blades did the video on. Similar to a draw knife but push to cut.

Growing up, splitting firewood meant an axe or if "rich", a hand pumped hydraulic ram and a wedge.
When camping we always managed to find enough kindling at the campsite. Usually under where we kids set our army surplus A tents, where our bedrolls were going.
I'd never heard of batoning until after joining BF.
No one I knew batoned with a knife, child or adult.
Batoning with a knife was never mentioned in any of the hiking, backpacking, camping, canoeing/kayaking, bicycle touring/bikepacking, or RV and car camping magazines.
None of the books by Nessmuk, Kephart, or Krepps mention splitting wood or dropping branches by beating a belt knife through with a rock, stick, hatchet/tomahawk, axe, or hammer.
 
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afishhunter said:
Sorry, the spokeshave I was thinking of is like the Mora 42 blades did the video on. Similar to a draw knife but push to cut.

Growing up, splitting firewood meant an axe or if "rich", a hand pumped hydraulic ram and a wedge.
When camping we always managed to find enough kindling at the campsite. Usually under where we kids set our army surplus A tents, where our bedrolls were going.
I'd never heard of batoning until after joining BF.
No one I knew batoned with a knife, child or adult.
Batoning with a knife was never mentioned in any of the hiking, backpacking, camping, canoeing/kayaking, bicycle touring/bikepacking, or RV and car camping magazines.
None of the books by Nessmuk, Kephart, or Krepps mention splitting wood or dropping branches by beating a belt knife through with a rock, stick, hatchet/tomahawk or axe.
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You learn something new every day!
 
Over the years, I've found that the knives which are good at batoning aren't really the best at cutting stuff because of the thick geometry. I'd rather have a knife optimized for cutting performance and an axe and saw combo when going out into the woods. That said, if you want a "survival knife" that does it all I can see why batoning is so important to people.
 
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