Why baton or chop with a knife?

Hawkings said:
You are on bladeforums, we like knives here, we like to use knives here.
I'd make my morning coffee with a knife if I could figure out how.
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Easy , pick the sugar up with a knife, drop in cup,stir . I brew in a pot, grinds and all, so I can also use a knife for the coffee to. :)
 
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Basicly what has been proven to me over time on this site, and being outdoors, are the big three: Axe, saw, fixed blade knife. I believe in these three and bring them whenever feasible. It is easy to lug them in a car trunk, a little less so but still not bad in a back pack. But for a day hike and fire were I don't WANT weight because of other equipment I will just bring a belt knife. No it is NOT my prefered method of processing wood. But for a small fire for a few hours it works well for me. Overnight you bet that I'd pack a saw. The problem with these discussions is trying to pigeon hole one tool as a be all end all. The closest ''one'' tool that I have is a G.B. small forest axe which feels pretty light to me. Start adding gear though and opinions may change. Ultimately we all have to decide what tools work best for our needs, environment, and common sense. Hell, I have some thicker Condor machetes that could even work as I've split wood with them and they don't weigh much.
 
Wow, brand, spanking new chopper vs. axe thread and it's already up too 5 pages! I have to controublute.

The main advantage of the axe I think is the distribution of weight. With the axe, you should be able to get more chopping power out of a tool of the same weight, since all the metal is concentrated on the chopping point with a lot less weight in the handle. With the chopper, you have a lot of sharpened metal in the blade, which you don't use while chopping. The good thing about that I guess is that it's easier to hit, if your aim is not so good :D.

You can use a chopper knife for batoning of course, but you can use an axe for batoning also.
 
After reading all this I never realized I batton my fire wood all the time. I use the chain saw to cut the logs / branches to 1 foot lengths, take my Estwing hatchet, swing it in the wood, and use a 2 lb hammer to drive the steel hatchet down until the wood is split into kindling.
 
Hawkings said:
You are on bladeforums, we like knives here, we like to use knives here.
I'd make my morning coffee with a knife if I could figure out how.
Click to expand...

Funny you should mention that...

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I fall pretty solidly into the 'who cares?' camp on this. I don't do a lot of batoning, but I like it for smaller kindling. And I wouldn't buy a knife that wouldn't hold up to reasonable batoning.
 
I enjoy it. Some knives are built for it and I use those ones



In fact I'm going to split more firewood with my esee 6
 
Chopping frozen bacon:



Why?
To get to the bacon faster, that's why! :thumbup:
 
I don't camp much anymore, but I used to spend half my time in the woods. Never had to baton, never even entered my mind until I saw a video of someone doing it. I thought it looked foolish, but once I tried it I found it was a lot of fun. Similar to how I used large chisels and cutting tools to do post-and-beam timber work.

Anyway, one of the best things about batoning (in my mind) is creating a useful purpose for knives that look like they were ground out of a left-over chevy leaf-spring with a bastard file and half-an-hour of free time.

I love big, heavy knives, but some of these current blades are short-swords, not knives.

I love short-swords, but I like a lighter, more nimble blade on a short sword unless I'm going to field dress a Toyota or battle a transformer (not the Lou Reed kind, the Optimus Prime kind).

In all seriousness, though, batoning is satisfying on a visceral level, and it does allow you to place cuts more precisely than you would with the swing of an axe. Is it necessary? Who cares. If it gets people outside and actually interacting with wood, a blade, and their wits, how can it be bad. A lot of the current generation can't even figure out how to use a wrench or drive a nail. Anyone who is using a tool that isn't a smartphone and doesn't require electricity should be praised and encouraged.
 
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