Is this 'batoning' and firewood chopping with a knife a passing trend?

Codger_64 said:
No. By then there will be historians trying to rediscover what it was. And write statistical reports about it's prevalence among knife owners. They of course will have to experimant with it themselves using old electronic media as a guide. They will be known as the talley whackers.
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And those using only axes will be known as "total axes"? :p

(If I was going to carry a couple of extra pounds of steel over my present tool load, it would be one of my axes: cruiser or hand axe. I got one years ago that is exactly 16 Oz. and only marked "Hand Made.")
 
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Smithhammer said:
I think we're batonning a dead horse at this point...

beating_a_dead_horse.jpg
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The horse was fossilized many many batoning threads ago. It will happen again and again until the sun runs out of fuel consuming the Earth in it's death trows. But at the last second billions of years from now the very last surviving heat/radiation resistant bacteria will post the LAST batoning thread. Mark this post!
 
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hells no
while ever there are people who consider that since their opinion is the one twue way ..... or their buddy certified expert outdoorsman says it is SO ... and there exist others who couldnt give a rats rear about said experts and one twue way folks , the merits of batoning will be debated and discussed

This subject will NEVER go away ..
( cue twilight zone music )

on a semi more serious note tho ..
My grandfather showed me how to baton ( with a crap stainless steel breadknife btw ) to split roofing iron lengthwise ( you just tear it crossways ) when making chooksheds and other rough n ready outbuildings .
When I worked at rubber lining on ball mills , we batoned thru foot and a half thick lumps of rubber to cut them to length ,whacking on the spine of a knife with a mallet to force it thru stuff has been just par for the course till I learned its a controversial thing to do when it comes to making kindling .
 
People still have problems with batoning? Get over it... Using an axe or a knife to baton is the same premise with only a slightly different technique. You are still taking a wedge of metal and forcing lengthwise through a piece of wood for the purpose of splitting it. It's generally easier to pack in a large knife than it is most axes. It's just the way it is...

Batoning will go away when the axe does... meaning as long as it is deemed necessary to split wood, man will do it with what tools they have available.

What do I typically use? I bring an X7 hatchet and 10" folding Corona saw. Mission accomplished.
 
Baton-ing talk reminds me of Matthew Quigley (down under) and firing a revolver:

" I said I never had much use for it. I never said I couldn't do it."
 
I think what gets over stated a lot is "the right tool for the job" it's pretty generalized and people against batoning often say this and yeah it makes sense at face value. And I think that's important. If you're talking about survival situations, you never know what you're going to have on you. Maybe you have an axe, a knife, a saw, nothing. And what kind of axe, knife, saw you have could vary as well. Batoning is a proven skill, and it's a useful skill to practice or have.

That being said, splitting a log down the middle an axe is much easier, but a folding saw is much better at cutting off branches or logs. Every tool is different and has it's used, in an ideal situation you'd have them all and use them at all their strengths. Batoning is much better for splitting little pieces into smaller pieces, a knife is also much better for feather sticking even if you can do it with an axe, just like an axe is much easier for splitting big pieces even though you can do it with a knife.

Your environment is also very important. How cold is it? How plentiful is the wood? Sometimes you don't need a fire, sometimes you need a big fire. I'm going tent camping in a few days in in new hampshire, I'll have a huge fire going all day basically, and I'll be using my axe, saw, and knife to process and gather wood. Sometimes you don't need a cutting tool at all to get a fire going and keep it sustained. But like I said all these things depend.

What kind of knife do you have? If you have a bk2 then obviously you can baton effective without worrying about your knife breaking, do you have a mora? Well then you probably don't want to baton even though you can.

Survival skill may never be needed or used, but they are all good to have. It's like fire pistons or instance, or Firesteels. A lighter is much easier but those are good to have on hand or know how to use just in case.

Most importantly it's about enjoying what you're doing. I love chopping wood whether it's with an axe or batoning with a knife. Some people prefer different things. So it's not like they are hurting anyone if they choose to not carry an axe. There are a lot of factors that go into choosing and using your gear, for some people they would rather carry a knife or a folding saw than an axe or bow saw especially for long hikes etc. part of bushcrafting is doing a lot with very little, and sometimes that means choosing a knife over an axe. Even what type of axe you bring depends on factors unique to the individual, climate, etc.

Nutnfancy, even though a lot of people don't like him, has a pretty in depth video about why big knifes are better for him than axes and it's worth a watch if you have the time.
 
Mastalerz said:
Nutnfancy, even though a lot of people don't like him, has a pretty in depth video about why big knifes are better for him than axes and it's worth a watch if you have the time.
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Is that the one in which he sprays WD40 on the knife blade before batoning through a log.....:D IMHO big knives aren't better than axes for jobs mean for axes no more than axes are better than knives for jobs mean for knives. However to each their own so if it works better for (HIM) that's cool.
 
Like it or not, batonning knives is part of our culture. There's no sense hiding from it or arguing over it... it's going to happen, and it's not going away. People like to bash knives through wood for various reasons, and I am not offended by that.

As a maker of outdoors/survival/tactical knives, I have no choice but to embrace this fact, and I design and build my knives with that in mind.

Perhaps more importantly, as a knife user I know from much experience that processing wood by batonning a good knife can indeed be done with great effectiveness, safety and efficiency. I've never broken a knife or hurt myself by batonning it. It does require a modicum of common sense, though.

The trouble starts when folks try to split a six-inch log right down the middle with a four-inch knife or go to pounding away like they're in some kind of macho race, with no thought to the simple physics involved. That's just plain dumb.

Short vid with one of my knives...

[video=youtube;W4yItkfq2Ec]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4yItkfq2Ec[/video]

Obviously I just split up a ratty old 2x4 in that vid for the sake of a quick demonstration, but the same basic tenets apply when cutting wood to length. Take your time and don't bite off more than you can chew.
 
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Who are you kidding, you haven't been out on a date in decades. :rolleyes:

Wait... what?
 
Codger_64 said:
Does jimping help when batoning? :)
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Codger, your post got me thinking, which is rarely ever a good thing....but;

Most of us can agree that saws are a good way to cut wood.

At least some of us agree that batoning is a decent way to split wood.

Sooo.....what about whacking on the top of a saw with a baton, while simultaneously sawing?

Two good things can't make a bad thing, can they?

I give you "sawtonning."

This may require a new thread...
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Smithhammer said:
Codger, your post got me thinking, which is rarely ever a good thing....but;

Most of us can agree that saws are a good way to cut wood.

At least some of us agree that batoning is a decent way to split wood.

Sooo.....what about whacking on the top of a saw with a baton, while simultaneously sawing?

Two good things can't make a bad thing, can they?

I give you "sawtonning."

This may require a new thread...
smileycoffeed.gif
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Saw blades are pretty thin.

Driving the teeth into the work makes it almost impossible to saw. (Traditional advice to those who bear down too hard: "Let the teeth do the work.")
 
Thomas Linton said:
Saw blades are pretty thin.

Driving the teeth into the work makes it almost impossible to saw. (Traditional advice to those who bear down too hard: "Let the teeth do the work.")
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Mere design hurdles, Thomas. People used to say similar things about knives. :D
 
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