Why Baton?

Danke42 said:
It's overrated.
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You just got to want it more...

I was raised to call it splitting kindling and always just used a small axe or hatchet. Some day, it's not inconceivable I might do some batoning with a knife, but that day hasn't come. The main reason for doing so would be having a YouTube channel that reviewed fixed blades.

People keep saying that batoning with a knife is safer than using a hatchet, but there's nothing stopping you from splitting kindling with an axe or hatchet without swinging it. In fact you can do so without requiring a mallet, just using gravity, so you're not mashing your hand with the mallet. Swinging wildly with an axe to split kindling is doing it wrong.
 
Smaug said:
It seems to be a "standard test" to a lot of reviewers.

When I go out to build a fire, I would rather just pick up smaller sticks than split larger wood with my knife. If it's wet, I whittle off the bark. I haven't had any problems yet.

What am I missing?
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Dry sticks, eh?

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Major storm, surrounding county flooded.
Whittling some wet bark wouldn't have cut it.

Instead, I used the knife in the pic to cut poles, and we set up a tarp structure (dollar store tarps, two of them).
My brother and I grabbed a bunch of wood, standing deadwood preferred.
Split the wood under the tarp structure, mainly with his RD-9.
When all wood was prepared, set up the firewood structure and got it going. :)
 
^but you brought a saw😆

I like splitting wood lengthwise but sawing it crosswise. I usually saw it into foot long logs then split em with the knife.

Like a few others in this thread I was “batonning” before it was even a term. We just did it to split wood. I was doing that sh!t in the 80s with an old Muela and (believe it or not) Tramontina machete.
 
Yes it is a way to get dry wood when everything is wet. But you don't stop there, the next step is to featherstick that dry wood which is suitable for use with a ferro rod.
But i always check the weather and if it will rain i just stay at home. So i always use a foldable twig stove, no knife needed.
 
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AntDog said:
^but you brought a saw😆

I like splitting wood lengthwise but sawing it crosswise. I usually saw it into foot long logs then split em with the knife.

Like a few others in this thread I was “batonning” before it was even a term. We just did it to split wood. I was doing that sh!t in the 80s with an old Muela and (believe it or not) Tramontina machete.
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https://imgur.com/U7Ghu2s

Plus, the saw teeth are a little too aggressive.

https://imgur.com/eLWZBWA
 
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