Thinnest knife you'll baton.

Shotgun

Shotgun

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So I've seen threads where guys are batoning moras and even pocket knives and they do okay but I want to know what the thinnest stock knife you'd feel comfortable(meaning you'll know there won't be damage) batoning? Let's say it's a knife with a blade 3-5 inches in length. Feel free to add steel and maker if you want.
 
I batoned a SAK One-Hand Trekker. I was on a week-long backpack and purposely brought only that knife. Needed a piece of wood off a log to use as a fire drill baseplate so I batoned the SAK. Worked fine but I would obviously not want to do that very often.

DancesWithKnives
 
I've batoned my machetes on more than one occasion, even my stainless Condor ones, and they're around 1/8th"
 
Mora #510, not sure on the thickness, but thinner than 1/8". I would have plenty of confidence in 1/8" stock.
It's all about proper technique.
 
For me, it is often more a question of the piece of the wood than the thickness of the knife. Very hard wood, seasoned wood, or very knotty wood may require some extra care and can really flex a thin knife. However, I have found that when I baton with care it seems to stress the knife very little. I would have no problem batoning with just about any thickness as long as I was careful and chose the wood wisely.
 
my .095 inch Koyote in 15n20 holds up to battonning no problems! I told him I wouldn't use it for that kind of stuff but heh... didn't even marr the steel or touch the edge.
 
I make my Nessmuks out of 3/32" 01 steel, and have batonned them cross grain through a 2" seasoned hickory branch. Now, my warranty wouldn't cover that. But for my testing, etc, it has withstood it no problem.
 
Well - just take a look at the Koyote Bushcrafter Leuku Passaround thread, that knife is 0.095 as PayetteRucker said. It was batoned through tons of different kinds of wood without effect. Of course, I wouldn't want a 3/32" blade that is 1/2" wide to baton, but if the knife is rigid enough as afforded by blade width it will do fine.

Here is the thing, thin knives slice better than thick knives. So when batoning, you actually use much less force with the baton to drive the knive through the wood as compared to 0.25" thick knives need. In fact, I actually prefer batoning 1/8" thick knives because of this.

The only thing you have to watch out for is prying during batoning, on a thinner knife you want to cut pretty much right through the wood. On a thicker knife I go about 3/4" and just yank the knife sideways to facilitate the split. Of course, one reason I do this is because I'm getting tired of hitting the knife with the baton so hard because of its thickness.
 
I have done some light batoning with somthing as small as 1/32'', but I prefer it to be about .095 like kgd mentioned.
 
Depends on the grind and type and thickness of the wood.

Even when the woods has been really wet I've usually been able to get a fire going by not batoning but just taking say 2" peices of wood, laying the edge of the knife on top then using a gloved hand holding a peice of wood to just push the blade thru the wood without striking the blade.

I think using a knife to split large rounds of wood to get a fire going is mostly overkill. You need to start a pretty intense blaze using a big pile of small stuff and most big stuff will burn without splitting then.:thumbup:

In fact if you aren't in a hurry and there's lots of wood you can burn most firewood in half and not chop it although if firewood is scarce or you are trying to cook supper you might want to chop it.
 
Our thickest knife is 1/8 stainless and our carbon knives our 3/32 or less, all close to 4" long. My hubby is looking at a 5/32 by 1", A2 steel 4" long flat groung full tang knife for our pack. Sould he buy this knife or should we save our money and use what we have for batoning? Thanks.
 
I've batonned a 3/32" Breeden blade a couple times. Now that I usually have a hatchet with me, though, I use that to split instead of a knife on the rare occasion splitting needs to be done.
 
I've batoned the hell out of Tramontina machetes, which are about .075"-.080" thick (less than 3/32"). They're well suited for such a purpose.
 
matthewdanger said:
For me, it is often more a question of the piece of the wood than the thickness of the knife. Very hard wood, seasoned wood, or very knotty wood may require some extra care and can really flex a thin knife. However, I have found that when I baton with care it seems to stress the knife very little. I would have no problem batoning with just about any thickness as long as I was careful and chose the wood wisely.
Click to expand...

Exactly how I feel, although, my folders that I carry (and fixed) are always about .125" thick anyways, so anything that size or bigger would be great :D
 
I agree, it depends on the type of wood that is being batoned. I wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable if it was in a situation where I was survivng, but for fun, I will baton with just about anything, if I expect it is able to hold up to it.
 
So far the thinnest knife, other than my machetes, I have batoned that survived with no damage has been 1/8 steel. Both the W-1 steel "Bushlore" I got from Rick and the O-1 steel Sojourner that I just got from Bryan. I batoned an Old Hickory butcher knife through some hardwood once and the handle got a little loose really quick.
 
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