So you simply MUST baton?

[Charlie_K]

Somebody help me out here. What is it about the general construction of the froe that makes it a better batoning option than a knife?

 

[Cajun Kamikaze]

Somebody help me out here. What is it about the general construction of the froe that makes it a better batoning option than a knife?

Looks like it is specifically made for batoning.. Only batoning, no other use really, unless you McGyver it....

 

[Steve Tall]

The froe can be used on long pieces of wood, preferably green wood, and once the split is started, prying with the handle can be sufficient to advance the split. Also, corrections can be made to the direction the split is running.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/shopping/Instructions.aspx?p=67296

 

[mainaman]

Isn't that a bit bulky to carry in the woods?

 

[Angus McGunnigle]

Me and the wife went camping a few months back a a state park. A couple pulled in to the site next to ours just after dark and the guy starts trying to build a fire. I see him pull out his big knife and start batoning cordwood for their fire and I offer him the use of my axe to speed things up. He declined and his girlfriend sat on the picnic table watching him hack away for another 20 minutes until he'd split enough for a little fire.

I saw very similar recently.

 

[DarthTaco123]

Same thing happened to me two months ago! A few friends and I were the only ones around, and me being myself, brought too many axes (I was the only one interested in using them apparently). I had a 3 lb. Maine Wedge Pattern, a Collins Hudson Bay, and a Collins Jersey Pattern. One or two days into the trip another group of people show up, unpack, but all they've got is a knife to split their logs. At first it was just some dead, dry, poplar, but then they pulled out some elm and ash. I offered them an axe, they laughed it off, and tried to split it a wal-mart hatchet and machete.

 

[B34NS]

A tool used for making shingles. Silly bushcraft kids.

 

[Square_peg]

A froe is a tool to be used at home (or a future home). Batoning is a trail technique. Batoning works and saves a lot of weight in your pack. There's a place for every tool and technique.

 

[Rhinoknives1]

Pondoro,
I thought a Froe was a hair style? LOL

 

[Cajun Kamikaze]

Lol :d

 

[liamstrain]

Froes have a few other uses.

2) Suppose you get a firewood-sized piece of a nice wood (like buried in a pile of firewood) - walnut, cherry, or (in my case) osage orange? Inside that piece is enough lumber to make a knife handle or a pistol grip or some other small object, but there is no flat side to let you resaw it. You can use the froe to flatten one side enough to let it lay on a band saw table, then use the band saw to make a really flat side, then slab off your pieces. If you want to turn the wood on a lathe you can use the froe to remove all the sapwood and also make the blank an octagon, resulting in an easier time on the lathe.

3) If you are a real old timer and want to make spoons or tent stakes the old fashioned way (starting with pieces of a tree) a froe is the best way to start out, it saves a lot of spokeshaving and whittling.

Both of these tasks are accomplished better with different tools, if we're going down that route. A broad axe for the first, and a carving axe/hatchet for the second.

 

[Rhinoknives1]

A Froe and other specialized wood working tools excel at their intended uses far more that a 5-6" knife for splitting/processing wood.

Still a Froe is a bit heavy & odd sized to lug into the forest if you are planning on covering a lot of ground and not just hanging out in a wood cutting camp.

I still personally prefer a handsaw or small hatchet for light camp work on wood and saving my knife for cutting.

 

[300Six]

Froes have a few other uses.
1) Basket makers like to split thin strips of green wood (they prefer ash) to reinforce and decorate baskets, or to make handles.

Black Ash is prized by traditional basket weavers (natives, we're not talking about Poly Sci Majors (political science) recreational college students here) in that it is poorly connected along the annular rings and merely pounding on the butt of a split round will readily separate the strands. All the while when wet/soft and pliable these wood strips are woven into wonderfully strong and useful baskets when they dry and cure.

 

[Cajun Kamikaze]

Basket weaving? Wow, that's some serious man stuff...

 

[300Six]

Basket weaving? Wow, that's some serious man stuff...

Yup! I don't know what era you went to university/college but 'basket weaving' and 'bird courses' were top of the list of frivolous/fluff curriculum stuff during the 1970s. We all presume 'wood' to be much the same material until proved otherwise and Black Ash really is an eye-opener. It is unique in that it readily separates at the annual rings. Emerald Ash Borer (introduced bug from China) is about to wipe out every last one of those trees and every Native Indian band in n. America (that used to make wood strip baskets) is going to be suing or otherwise insisting on gov't financial assistance in lieu.

 

[tanglediver]

Wow! I don't like bugs.

Old tools were made with old techniques. A froe was a relatively easy tool for a blacksmith to produce, I presume, unlike a modern survival knife. The old timers developed skills with these tools that intrigue me. Like others here, I only learned of the froes purpose recently. I've heard of the tool long ago, but hand tool collecting is increasingly fascinating to me. I just started collecting a few examples of broadaxes and hatchets. Good stuff to have on any country homestead. Now all I need is a country homestead.....

 

[Student762]

Wow! I don't like bugs.

Old tools were made with old techniques. A froe was a relatively easy tool for a blacksmith to produce, I presume, unlike a modern survival knife. The old timers developed skills with these tools that intrigue me. Like others here, I only learned of the froes purpose recently. I've heard of the tool long ago, but hand tool collecting is increasingly fascinating to me. I just started collecting a few examples of broadaxes and hatchets. Good stuff to have on any country homestead. Now all I need is a country homestead.....

Lol love that.:thumbup:

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

In old times, cleavers like these were used by farmers in my town to chop and split wood and pig bones alike. They were often batoned with wooden mallets or clubs, so batoning is actually nothing new.

Nice manaresso! Looks like a "Reggio" pattern?

 

[Pirate63]

I don't think I will ever understand the obsession with beating on a good knife. I understand in a true survival situation you do what you must to stay alive, but as a general rule I don't use my knives as a screwdriver, pry bar, or axe. I am a firm believer in using the right tool for the job.

I am with you. Battoning is really just folks showing off their perceived woodscraft skills. If all I had in the wild with me is a knife sure maybe, but I am better prepared when I am in the woods. But hey maybe you can start training for an episode of Naked and Afraid.

 

[Pondoro2310]

Interesting, today I saw a used cleaver (I didn't buy it) that had been destroyed by being pounded with a metal hammer, the back was reduced to 1/2 its depth in the middle.

Froe versus spokeshave - they do similar things and are sometimes able to do the same thing, but a spokeshave will crack if you pry too much with it. Froes are tough and not nearly as hard. They don't stay as sharp as a spokeshave but do not need to. So when making something from a piece of limb or trunk you froe first and then use a spokeshave, then later a drawknife. all have their uses.