Why do you baton?

I guess you could say, because I can. I have seen some very nice expensive knives used in many ways on this great forum. I personally value my edge time too much. The only knife that I would abuse would be my Kukri. Now that is a knife. I guess the other would be my Mineral Mountain Hatchet Works camp bowie. My smaller blades no way. I do like to see bush crafters do it. It's educational, can be done if needed. Loosearrow
 
I can't add much to what has already been posted so I will just post my own reasons that are probably a repeat...

One, because it is safe(er). I find that it is much more controlled than chopping with a knife. It is easy to control where the edge is going and so it is a safer method of splitting wood for me.

Two, because it splits/shortens wood without dulling the edge. You can baton all day and your shaving sharp knife will still shave because the edge only starts the cut. The shoulder and sides of the knife actually do the work once the splitting starts.

Three, it makes it a heck of a lot easier to get a fire going! When it is wet, you can get to dry heart wood. When it is dry, you can get nice sectioned pieces that burn much easier. Also, you can get everything you need for a fire from one log - kindling and larger chucks of fuel, sometimes even tinder.
 
i don't often need to actually cut and baton to make fire, but i enjoy it and i find that fire gets a bit easier when you are using twigs split from a log instead of found twigs...but i often use a combo of both. splits from a log are also easier to fuzz than sticks of the same size found naturally in my opinion.

i have been surprised though and was forced to use some cutting tools to start a fire before, and was glad i had them and was familiar with the process. it was on the camping trip with tonym and bearsbreath a while ago...it rained hard all night and the next afternoon everything was still soaked. we were lucky and found a standing dead rock solid red oak limb that we were able to cut down (with much effort) and then saw into pieces and split with our knives to make fire. if we hadn't found that, we would likely have spent far more time searching for wood or breaking out the propane stoves...

its good to practice and become familiar with different methods for those just in case scenarios, its fun and its a good way to show off how tough your knife is.
 
Why do I baton?

To paraphrase Bill Clinton: "Because I can".

In most instances I don't need to baton. I largely prefer to use twigs, and then logs, so no need for batoning. Actually, on most of my hikes there would be no need to draw a knife at all.

Yet, may I need it, I can do it, even if it apply to a smaller number of occasion.

Batoning is not batoning "per se", it is splitting wood.
So the real question is: why do you split?

Most people with an axe will go into splitting wood, so I assume they have reasons for it. Since I assume axe wielders' needs don't differ that much from knife wielders' needs, why would a knife user refrain from splitting, if he can?
 
Where does everyone find wood in the forest that looks like it has been sectioned with a chain saw? Most pictures I see of wood batoning is being done on wood that has a really nice flat end.

It seems that if all you had was a big chopper or even an axe by the time you chopped the wood into smaller sections you'd have allot of dry wood chips to use to get your fire going. But if you did decide to baton the pieces they would be all uneven and irregular from the chopping process.

I can see batoning being alot of fun and finding a use for what you produced but it doesn't seem like it would be a necessity most of the time.
 
JTC said:
Where does everyone find wood in the forest that looks like it has been sectioned with a chain saw? Most pictures I see of wood batoning is being done on wood that has a really nice flat end.

It seems that if all you had was a big chopper or even an axe by the time you chopped the wood into smaller sections you'd have allot of dry wood chips to use to get your fire going. But if you did decide to baton the pieces they would be all uneven and irregular from the chopping process.

I can see batoning being alot of fun and finding a use for what you produced but it doesn't seem like it would be a necessity most of the time.
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You can baton cross grain as well. Also, some people carry a packable saw.
 
How about this.
You are out for a day hike (no axe on this short jaunt). You get lost, your friend get hurt or the weather turns suddenly nasty and you will have to spend the night in the woods or help get your friend to the trailhead.

Batoning can help you to be able to cut saplings or green branches for a shelter or make a litter.
If you think about it, you can probably come up with another dozen scenarios where battoning would be a useful technique to have mastered.
 
if you have access to large amounts of small stuff then there is no need to do it.

You don't need a hatchet either if you can get your fire going fast enough to burn the long peices in half before the coals die down.

I've done it mainly to get a fire going after it has been wet and I didn't have access to a lot of difft sizes of wood.
 
Sharp Eye said:
How about this.
You are out for a day hike (no axe on this short jaunt). You get lost, your friend get hurt or the weather turns suddenly nasty and you will have to spend the night in the woods.

Batoning can help you to be able to cut saplings or green branches for a shelter or make a litter.
Click to expand...

I take out my SAK Trekker and saw cut saplings using the saw.

I then use the blade for skinning bark off to make the ties (using our shoe laces as backups of course).

I set my 'friend' under this shelter and see that he is as comfortable as possible giving him my coat\jacket\? to keep him warm. As I will soon be excercising by gathering as much wood as possible he needs it more than I do.

I gather up every piece of downed and dead wood I can find as quickly as possible while at the same time searching for a secondary water source if we have not found one earlier.

I then forumulate a plan for getting out or getting help in as quickly as possible while I begin to build my fire pit and setup my fire.

and so forth and so on...

I don't leave the house without one SAK that has a saw and have complete faith the I'd do quite well with it in the scenario you described. No, I wouldn't be carrying an axe on a 'short' jaunt. But I doubt I'd be carrying anything larger than a 3" fixed blade or the aforementioned SAK either. The idea of going for a walk in the woods and needing to carry a machete, kukri, or other relatively large knife, I admit, escapes me.

Now please remember, this isn't about me convincing you NOT to baton. It's about you convincing me that I NEED to baton. I would never suggest to anyone *not* to do something they wanted to do (unless of course they were about to put their eye out ;) ) but it is mildly frustrating when you keep hearing "a knife must be able to do this or it's no good".

:p
 
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I don't find kindling all that easy to locate. It is usually already scrounged up from the grounds, or you have to deal with the snarly branches left around the firepit because someone else was too lazy to process it.

Before I start a fire I like to get all my tinder and kindling organized and at the ready. As a few people here eluded to. Sometimes starting a fire is the easiest thing in the world. Sometimes it can be a real challenge. When it is a real challenge, you have to be very organized in your kindling. You have to make sure it is dry, you might want to make sure it has high surface area edges to better catch the flame. In dealing with processing smaller diameter sizes and cutting them down for kindling I find a knife much more useful than a hatchet. You can whittle off the bark and slice off thick wedges. I know you can do these with a sharp hatchet - but not nearly as easily as a knife. Also splitting smaller 1 - 2" sized pieces is a lot easier by batoning - you aren't doing the balancing act with the stick during the ax-swing.

When making that fire is a challenge. Simply gathering sticks hardly ever works - at least that has been my experience.
 
The smaller dry splt kindling type stuff burns quicker and accumulates enough heat to boil water or warm the hands sooner. Very true a whole round log will make better coals eventually but if you are really cold and hungry, who has time to wait?

It is more safe than using an ax on the gripless 1.5" stuff.

Fun, safe, and instant gratification (well, more so).
 
Most of mine is for the fire pit. I do it because it burns better, is fun - I get to mess around with my knives- and I find it safer than using a hatchet or small axe. Now I don't baton big stuff, mostly 1"-3" stuff - kindling.
 
I haven't read the other posts yet. I baton in very specific circumstances.

In Brazil I use and teach a rainy season technique using Candeia wood. Candeia is a very oily, smelly wood that burns very brightly. It also doesn't soak up water. I cut myself a section and split it in half. From the inside of the split I then use the back of the machete blade to scrape up a large handful of dry tinder. I then baton half of the the wood into small pencil sized splits/thick shavings and the other half into finger sized kindling. Candeia is very hard with an irregular, winding grain so it doesn't make good fuzz sticks, but I often make a few of the larger pieces with cuts in them to catch flame better.

Aside from using this technique in rainy season I do end up teaching it all year long, even when it is totally unnecessary. I just let them know, this is a rainy season technique that we don't need to do, we're just learning.

The other frequent use I have for batonning is to make a nice flat fire board for using a bow drill. Other than these two specific tasks I rarely if ever baton wood. I just select standing deadfall that breaks down into its component parts. Mac
 
If I had a hand axe - I use that - I baton mostly just to get tools.

Hearth boards and the like work MUCH better (when making a bow drill fire) when they are flat on the bottom - I like them flatter on the top too.

I don't think many people do a LOT of batoning - I think you see it here a lot because people want to test their blades.


TF
 
I camp at least monthly and have never used the baton technique even when only carrying a nine inch bowie, rather than a hatchet or saw, it is easy enough to chop throughlimbs up to 2-3 inch in diameter if I can't just snap them by standing on them.
 
One reason. It takes a lot of heat and fuel to burn through a big log.

I know we have all had the big log that doesn't burn and you keep running around for smaller stuff to toss under it.

It's a lot easier to reduce the big log initially than try to burn the whole thing.
 
JTC said:
Where does everyone find wood in the forest that looks like it has been sectioned with a chain saw? Most pictures I see of wood batoning is being done on wood that has a really nice flat end.

It seems that if all you had was a big chopper or even an axe by the time you chopped the wood into smaller sections you'd have allot of dry wood chips to use to get your fire going. But if you did decide to baton the pieces they would be all uneven and irregular from the chopping process.

I can see batoning being alot of fun and finding a use for what you produced but it doesn't seem like it would be a necessity most of the time.
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You said it, those are my exact thoughts. you never find a clean cut piece of lumber out in the woods. I live in AZ, therefore we have minimal rain and firewood is extremely easy to come by so I never have to split anything.

I did have one outting in a campground in the sierra nevadas where I needed to split wood. The were huge 18+ inch rounds cut with a chainsaw. Half of the logs were laying in the creek so I had to split off the wet wood. I used an axe. Other than that one occasion, I have never had the need to split wood.

I really prefer a folding saw or a bow saw.
 
Ravaillac said:
Why do I baton?

To paraphrase Bill Clinton: "Because I can".

In most instances I don't need to baton. I largely prefer to use twigs, and then logs, so no need for batoning. Actually, on most of my hikes there would be no need to draw a knife at all.

Yet, may I need it, I can do it, even if it apply to a smaller number of occasion.

Batoning is not batoning "per se", it is splitting wood.
So the real question is: why do you split?

Most people with an axe will go into splitting wood, so I assume they have reasons for it. Since I assume axe wielders' needs don't differ that much from knife wielders' needs, why would a knife user refrain from splitting, if he can?
Click to expand...



not sure i would define it as splitting........sure the blade is being forced thru the wood, and the result is "spliting " the wood apart, but the actual ACT of batoning is the brutal impact of a rock or piece of wood on a very small section of the top of a tool, creating stress, metal grain compaction and fatigue.

why would a knife user refrain from splitting wood this way as oppossed to an ax user?

lets look at the WIDTH of an ax for starters, it is a very large wedge shape (9/16" - 2" wide) , whereas a knife is much thinner (2mm - 1/4" (sometimes a bit thicker). Axe are DESIGNED for such repeated impact and shearing actions, knives are designed for slicing, stabbing, chopping small stuff. One cannot say that because ax users split wood , that knife users should also use their tools in the same manner. For the record, an ax swinging down on a chunk of wood impacts over 15 tons of pressure on that wood to split it apart. Think about that when your beating on your blades.

have i batoned? yes, I used a ASP baton to strike a knee joint to gain compliance from a person. have i abused my edged tools by creatign stress on one point thru impaction with rock, stick or log? yes. Would i do it again? no, unless the blade was 1/2" or thicker and i HAD NO OTHER CHOICE (this is false, there is ALWAYS another choice, Adapt Improvise Overcome)


just saying. my 2 cents.

:D
 
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Where does everyone find wood in the forest that looks like it has been sectioned with a chain saw? Most pictures I see of wood batoning is being done on wood that has a really nice flat end.

It seems that if all you had was a big chopper or even an axe by the time you chopped the wood into smaller sections you'd have allot of dry wood chips to use to get your fire going. But if you did decide to baton the pieces they would be all uneven and irregular from the chopping process.

I can see batoning being alot of fun and finding a use for what you produced but it doesn't seem like it would be a necessity most of the time.
Click to expand...

i baton chopped wood all the time. i even use an axe to split chopped wood often. with batoning there is no issue because you hold the knife on the wood until you strike, and with your knife apply pressure you are holding the wood upright. you can also set the wood up against the fork of a fallen tree, build a brace, or against the trunk of a fallen tree. axe-splitting chopped wood is a bit trickier, since you need to raise the axe and impact it on the wood, and if the wood isn't flat on the ends then it won't stand up.

this is easily solved by laying the wood on its side on a chopping block and striking that way. if a block is not available, you can straddle your piece of wood with it laying flat on the ground and swing the axe into it between your legs. due to inertia etc the axe becomes stuck in the log or simply splits the wood.
 
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