I'm with you there. It's a 3.5hr round trip for me just to get somewhere that's remote and allows open fires. I love the woods...but not enough to make that trip more than once or twice a year. However, since I became a blade addict, I make the trip every other weekend just to try out a new blade or a new technique I learned about. In the end, whether you prefer a knife or an axe to chop down a tree....isn't it better than another weekend on the couch watching reruns of Dual Survival?
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Is this 'batoning' and firewood chopping with a knife a passing trend?
- Thread starter Blackie Scantling
- Start date
I'm with you there. It's a 3.5hr round trip for me just to get somewhere that's remote and allows open fires. I love the woods...but not enough to make that trip more than once or twice a year. However, since I became a blade addict, I make the trip every other weekend just to try out a new blade or a new technique I learned about. In the end, whether you prefer a knife or an axe to chop down a tree....isn't it better than another weekend on the couch watching reruns of Dual Survival?
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- Jan 7, 2012
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Agreed! Go baton or axe chop the heck out of some wood, just don't sit around and read about it only. Whatever gets you out and takes your pulse up for an hour or two.
elof_alv
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I have batoned wood long before I found out what it was called!
I needed to split a few logs and all I had was Ka-Bar Warthog, it did the job splendidly, got the fire started and going with rain... Few years later I started reading about stuff like that online...
I needed to split a few logs and all I had was Ka-Bar Warthog, it did the job splendidly, got the fire started and going with rain... Few years later I started reading about stuff like that online...
Just a Rambo knife to cut yourself out of the aircraft to you can evade.Or carrying an axe!
Last edited:
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As in everything, change happens.
When I was a backpacker, a camp axe, a folder of some type and a small 4" fixed blade was all that was needed.
With wanting to cover more ground like the mountain men on horse back of yesteryear, the grain fed horse was replaced with a semi-grain (E10) fed horses.
Over the decades, axes will do and have done the job, knives are cooler than axes, in looks and the feeling of power and chainsaws tops them all.
When I was a backpacker, a camp axe, a folder of some type and a small 4" fixed blade was all that was needed.
With wanting to cover more ground like the mountain men on horse back of yesteryear, the grain fed horse was replaced with a semi-grain (E10) fed horses.
Over the decades, axes will do and have done the job, knives are cooler than axes, in looks and the feeling of power and chainsaws tops them all.
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Which I appreciate and rely on, to guide me through my own preconceived ignorance, thanks.
stabman
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Just a Rambo knife to cut yourself out of the aircraft to you can evade.
Oh God, not again...
Please get a new fixation; this one has gone blunt.
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- Nov 26, 2013
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A knife is a knife
An ax is an ax.
If you are batoning you are ill prepared, or just want to beat on stuff.
If you got into a spot where you need to baton maybe you should just keep moving till you get to safety
An ax is an ax.
If you are batoning you are ill prepared, or just want to beat on stuff.
If you got into a spot where you need to baton maybe you should just keep moving till you get to safety
I only fixate when the knife is clinched between my teeth as I low crawl stealthily across the jungle floor.Oh God, not again...Just a Rambo knife to cut yourself out of the aircraft to you can evade.
Please get a new fixation; this one has gone blunt.
stabman
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I don't consider the OP's statement an attack on other members, simply a statement of his personal experience. Maybe some people should take things less personally and grow a thicker skin.
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For backpacking, I carry a SawVivor (ultra lightweight and cuts thru oak like it's cardboard).
It makes perfect rounds and gives me a nice, flat surface to baton thru. It tucks right into one of the side slots in my Kelty Red Cloud.
In the same slot (or opposite side) I can tuck in a large (9"-12") fixed blade, like a RTAK or Kershaw Outcast or whatever, and that pretty much covers me for wood. These two things weigh about as much as a hatchet alone. I'm not too keen on packing in a full size axe if I don't have to.
Plus, having tried both, I just prefer having a large fixed blade on me when I'm in the woods, rather than a hatchet. It's just more fun somehow, I dunno.
However, I do agree that it's a pretty pointless "test" to include in any knife review that's not a large fixed blade designed with batonning in mind.
It makes perfect rounds and gives me a nice, flat surface to baton thru. It tucks right into one of the side slots in my Kelty Red Cloud.
In the same slot (or opposite side) I can tuck in a large (9"-12") fixed blade, like a RTAK or Kershaw Outcast or whatever, and that pretty much covers me for wood. These two things weigh about as much as a hatchet alone. I'm not too keen on packing in a full size axe if I don't have to.
Plus, having tried both, I just prefer having a large fixed blade on me when I'm in the woods, rather than a hatchet. It's just more fun somehow, I dunno.
However, I do agree that it's a pretty pointless "test" to include in any knife review that's not a large fixed blade designed with batonning in mind.
It's ok, he obviously has not read the entire thread, he doesn't even know what he is responding to.
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It is one thing to question. It is another to denounce. The second has a sharply reduced chance of leading to a profitable exchange of ideas and experiences.
I consider the OP's statement, in clear intent and effect, to be that one does not see batoning when in the company of "expert outdoorsmen." So if you baton, you are less.
We have seen over the years where such words lead. We have had members leave. We have had members banned. Threads have been locked.
Maybe, in the interest of learning, some people should be willing to allow that others may have different opinions and experiences and still be within the range of the acceptable.
Then we might avoid unhelpful comments such as the opinion that if you don't have an axe, need to cut wood, and do so with a knife, you are "ill prepared, or just want to beat on stuff." (Not that some do not baton "just to beat on stuff." Look at the tree being used as a "baton" above.)
I respectfully suggest that if you think you will always have the "ideal tool" in an emergency, you need more experience with Murphy.
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Any "expert" who is ignorant of batoning isn't much of an expert. Even if they choose brittle knives or live in a warm climate full of dry sticks, they should at least be aware of age-old traditional techniques. Maybe OP can go back and teach these "experts" something with his new-found knowledge.