I'm new here...why does every fixed blade knife have to be a star at batoning?

Have you batonned a karambit?
I have. ;)

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To make steak cooking sticks:

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Shorter sticks would have been cool, but the fire pit has gotten wider over the years at times.
It is now a bit narrower these days, and has more rocks as opposed to bricks and cinderblocks which have weathered away and returned to the earth.
 
And to answer the original question of "Why does every fixed blade have to excel at batonning?", the correct answer is "They don't."

This knife is great at slicing and cutting, but I ain't bashing it through wood pieces, because it is not built for that:

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I dont get myself either. If you need to chop wood, there is a tool for that. It is called a hatchet. lol
A knife that is good at axe stuff kind of sucks at being a knife.... I think people just want to feel cool, like playing at survivorman/Rambo or something. Its like all the people that go shooting in more tactical gear than a navy seal, its just grown up LARPing. Whatever floats your boat I guess.
 
A knife that is good at axe stuff kind of sucks at being a knife...

Wrong.
Simply wrong.

I will agree that there are indeed "knife shaped axes" in effect that do suck at normal knife tasks, but knives such as the Junglas, or the blue handle one I made do normal knife tasks quite well.

And how about those South American folks who use machetes for all cutting tasks, including ones we'd reach for a knife to do? They don't seem to be hampered by a large blade that can chop. I also don't think they are LARPing...just living.
 
Its like all the people that go shooting in more tactical gear than a navy seal, its just grown up LARPing. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

Well, if I had the cash to get the .500 Magnum with 10 or 12 inch barrel before the handgun freeze came into effect, I would go the the range wearing my body armour and cosplay as a tank. :D

Sadly, now that dream will never come to pass. :(
 
And how about those South American folks who use machetes for all cutting tasks, including ones we'd reach for a knife to do? They don't seem to be hampered by a large blade that can chop. I also don't think they are LARPing...just living.
As somebody who has used a machete for years, I can say that there is a considerable difference between a machete and a 12" knife thats 1/4" thick....one is useful for a lot of things, the other is just a boat anchor that youtubers chop up cars with.....
 
Have you batonned a karambit?
I have. ;)

iT1Zc5f.jpg


utl7iN2.jpg


To make steak cooking sticks:

sNbYy6r.jpg


Shorter sticks would have been cool, but the fire pit has gotten wider over the years at times.
It is now a bit narrower these days, and has more rocks as opposed to bricks and cinderblocks which have weathered away and returned to the earth.
You really need to put away those cinder blocks from your pictures and put some stones. The picture should represent an outing in nature, not on a construction site .
 
Wow, the judgment just hits hard here. 🧑‍⚖️
Hey everyone is different, sure. This is just an Internets forum and we are just looking at aesthetic pictures of knives. Some people probably prefer natural rock and no slin pins in their outdoor knife pics hahahahah.
 
I dont get myself either. If you need to chop wood, there is a tool for that. It is called a hatchet. lol
A knife that is good at axe stuff kind of sucks at being a knife.... I think people just want to feel cool, like playing at survivorman/Rambo or something. Its like all the people that go shooting in more tactical gear than a navy seal, its just grown up LARPing. Whatever floats your boat I guess.
What else would you do with a knife in woods , forks ? :) I understand them , they go to nature, they have a good knife and they need to do something with it.... :) If I collect my fishing trips, it turns out that I spent about three and a half years in the wilderness. It never occurred to me that I needed a knife to start a fire there , never ..... But I use my Parang the most, I need it to clear some new fishing spot in spring.
 
There are definitely a lot thicker fixed blades available these days and quite a few seem to be designed more for surviving the antics of the YouTubers who will abuse them than to be something someone would want to haul around all day in their pack. I like a big chopper as much as the next guy, but they're mainly going to be used for car camping. To avoid any misunderstandings with law enforcement though, just ensure you keep it in the trunk, next to your zap straps and duct tape...

It always made me shake my head, when someone would refer to another person lost in the wilderness and say they'll be fine because they were in the army. Suckling at the teat of logistics doesn't exactly lend itself to survival skills (other than winter warfare or other specialized environment training and the quality of that varies a lot). You might end up somewhere were you get some brief exposure to a survival expert. You might get a mini-course or part of a course that focuses a bit on wilderness survival, but it's just not a priority of most modern militaries in the 1st World these days (unlike sensitivity training). Bush skills that used to exist degraded a lot by the end of the Cold War. You learn how to use stoves but not start fires. I did see one sergeant take a Coleman lantern completely apart and fix as easily as if he was making coffee, while other experienced NCOs watched in amazement at this guy's mad skills. Having portable toilets available in the field means that nobody knows how to site or build a decent piss hole or shitter (complete with grunt bar). They will never know the pleasure of hearing a grunt bar snap and an officer screaming as they fall into a shitter, while they bite their own hand to keep from laughing too loud and putting a bull's eye on their own back.

Camping, hiking, and the skills my father taught me helped me a lot more in the bush than the military ever did. What the military gives you is the ability to react better in a crisis (hopefully), the drive to see your way out of it (provided you weren't one of the slack and idle), and the need to stay hydrated (should my piss be black?). A lot of people are getting hurt a lot playing with sharp and pointy things, either because our electronic devises have given us the attention span of a squirrel or our lives lend themselves to less tactile experiences with tools. What a lot of people today call bushcraft is what a lot of people just called camping, where camp skills varied wildly from person to person. If you're an office worker who doesn't have any experiences with using an axe, waiting until you're in the great outdoors and far from the trailhead might not be in your best interest. Watching videos about safe tool use is great, but not having any experience before hitting the wilderness can have consequences when you're tired from being in the harness of a backpack all day and you start making dumb mistakes. Batoning with an axe is actually easy, because you have the weight of the hatchet or axe to work with, so you don't need to use a mallet.

I would agree with a lot of what you are saying Grendels regarding Military or ex Military personnel who it is assumed that because they were in the Army they are natural born survival experts ! The truth is rather or indeed a lot different . Dont know about you but I am ex British Army and as you rightly said very few soldiers have any real understanding or have the benefit of continuous survival training throughout their Military careers or might have had only brief exposure to survival training . My time in the Forces was during the early mid 70s and later 80s and 90s and mainly because of the unit I served with I had the opportunity to both expand upon and teach combat survival and apart from that I had the added bonus of being taught some of these skills at a much earlier age by an ex Scottish Ghillie who had worked on some of the Highland estates . I also grew up in an age when kids had the opportunities to be normal kids , climbing trees and walls , putting themselves in dangerous situations etc , scraping their knees but just carrying on instead of running home to their Mothers . Unfortunately times have changed and kids have to endure the rigours of abiding by the ludicrous PC laws of society .
Getting back to what I was trying to say , I would endorse the Military youth of today to have to undergoe both basic and continuous survival training as part of their military remit regardless of whatever Regiment or Corps they serve in as it is a great moral fibre and character building skill to test your limits in certain situations . What I will finish off by saying is back in the day the ordinary British Tom (soldier) was an expert in the art of self improvisation , I believe the French Army call it Demerdez Vous / Tois in other words , just get on with it and sort things out yourself ! I expect because of the personal kit the military have these days there is a much lesser need for this attitude .
 
You really need to put away those cinder blocks from your pictures and put some stones. The picture should represent an outing in nature, not on a construction site .

First off, you are not the official judge of the woods.

Secondly, 3 cinderblocks were found in those woods right next to a tree, along with some old rope.

Thirdly, the bricks there were found right where you head into the woods.

Fourthly, we have, in over 12 years of using the site, found two rocks of any size at all. Two. That's right, the cinderblocks and bricks are more native to the area than rocks are.

Fifth, the pit looks better as of now, because we have been lugging rocks from way further down the trail into the woods, so that it would look nicer over time. We did it for our own pleasure, but apparently it will have the added bonus of avoiding internet judgement too.

See, more rocks, less bricks:

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And we did last trip out find a boulder in the area. Not a huge one, but I think it may meet the definition (have to bring a tape measure next time). Planning a way to get it as part of the pit...it is a fair walk through the woods from our normal area.

So fear not, judgey-eyed folks, the future will be rockier. :D
 
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OK, I admit I baton'd with a $60 TRI-AD folder before. I use a plastic hammer tho.
 
First off, you are not the official judge of the woods.

Secondly, 3 cinderblocks were found in those woods right next to a tree, along with some old rope.

Thirdly, the bricks there were found right where you head into the woods.

Fourthly, we have, in over 12 years of using the site, found two rocks of any size at all. Two. That's right, the cinderblocks and bricks are more native to the area than rocks are.

Fifth, the pit looks better as of now, because we have been lugging rocks from way further down the trail into the woods, so that it would look nicer over time. We did it for our own pleasure, but apparently it will have the added bonus of avoiding internet judgement too.

See, more rocks, less bricks:

8Px5i7f.jpg


And we did last trip out find a boulder in the area. Not a huge one, but I think it may meet the definition (have to bring a tape measure next time). Planning a way to get it as part of the pit...it is a fair walk through the woods from our normal area.

So fear not, judgey-eyed folks, the future will be rockier. :D
Lots of spots in the wilderness include abandoned homesteads, old industrial sites, and illegal garbage dumping. It's sometimes harder and harder to spend a day in the bush without tripping over garbage left behind by humans, recent or not. Remote beaches in wilderness parks can be even worse with all the stuff washing ashore.
 
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