- Joined
- Dec 20, 2021
- Messages
- 2,984
Here in the Pacific Northwest I'd never heard of the act of batoning until I came to Bladeforums. I used to think it was a little weird too, however it definitely works as an alternative to splitting wood with a hatchet or maul.
But honestly using a wedge to split a round, the way woodsmen and loggers have been doing it for centuries is basically batoning, except using the wedge instead of a knife. I really like making a wooden wedge and using that to split a round sometimes. I guess all of these skills and techniques are good to have in your tool belt, even though you prefer and use your normal technique usually.
Many people, my family included, used a wood stove to heat our home during the winter, fall, and spring. My whole family would spend about 1 weekend a year cutting down a few trees off our property, and gathering trees that fell from wind or lightning, and we'd cut them into rounds and haul and stack them into our homemade firewood shelter made from logs, using a tarp as a roof to keep it dry. It was quite the structure now that I think about it, I wish I had a picture. But after that I'd be the guy in charge of bringing wood down to our garage, splitting it, and keeping enough wood in the house to heat it. I used a splitting maul, axe, and hatchet exclusively, with just batonning every once in a while just to have some fun. However my neighbor used to split logs inside their living room next to the fire, and that would be a real good time to use the batoning technique. That way you have more control, you're not swinging a hatchet around inside the living room, and you can keep bark from flying everywhere a bit better. I always wanted to be able to split wood inside, however there's no way my mom would be down for that with bark, moss, lichen, and spiders flying everywhere lol.
But honestly using a wedge to split a round, the way woodsmen and loggers have been doing it for centuries is basically batoning, except using the wedge instead of a knife. I really like making a wooden wedge and using that to split a round sometimes. I guess all of these skills and techniques are good to have in your tool belt, even though you prefer and use your normal technique usually.
Many people, my family included, used a wood stove to heat our home during the winter, fall, and spring. My whole family would spend about 1 weekend a year cutting down a few trees off our property, and gathering trees that fell from wind or lightning, and we'd cut them into rounds and haul and stack them into our homemade firewood shelter made from logs, using a tarp as a roof to keep it dry. It was quite the structure now that I think about it, I wish I had a picture. But after that I'd be the guy in charge of bringing wood down to our garage, splitting it, and keeping enough wood in the house to heat it. I used a splitting maul, axe, and hatchet exclusively, with just batonning every once in a while just to have some fun. However my neighbor used to split logs inside their living room next to the fire, and that would be a real good time to use the batoning technique. That way you have more control, you're not swinging a hatchet around inside the living room, and you can keep bark from flying everywhere a bit better. I always wanted to be able to split wood inside, however there's no way my mom would be down for that with bark, moss, lichen, and spiders flying everywhere lol.
