Why you dont need a big knife to baton (pics)

matthew krissak

matthew krissak

Joined
Nov 11, 2005
Messages
1,076
I had lent out my Fallkniven F1 for the last month or so to my friend, another member here on the forums. Ive been bugging him a bit to get out side and put the knife to work. Today he sent me a few pics of him batoning it. so of course I right away thought of you guys and girls here at BF in the Wilderness & Survival skills forum.

Picture of the knife
IMG_0896.jpg


starting off
IMG_0884.jpg


mid way through
IMG_0886.jpg


nice top view
IMG_0885.jpg


Longer stick
IMG_0890.jpg


the after math
IMG_0893.jpg


IMG_0892.jpg


one more knife pic
IMG_0894.jpg
 
Nice pics Matt.

You are correct, I would never use a big knife to baton through wood that size, I would simply strike it with speed and downward force to split it.
But, if I didn't have a larger knife, I would do exactly what you did.

I think it's more about the flexibilty of being able to perform the feat in various ways, given various means at hand.
Theoretically, and Generally, the longer the knife blade (provided it has equivalent heft), the more feasible to baton (split) through larger wood.

It would be much tougher for you to baton through one of those larger logs with the Fallkniven, than it would be with a Becker Brute, just for discussions sake.

Most would immediately report that the Fallkniven is the obvious higher quality blade, but the Brute happens to be better suited for splitting down a 12" diamter log than the Fallkniven.

Any of these discussions can boil down to what you are carrying, or have with you, at the time.

I would much rather skin a rabbit or clean a fish with the Fallkniven than a Brute. ;)
 
SkunkWerX said:
Nice pics Matt.

You are correct, I would never use a big knife to baton through wood that size, I would simply strike it with speed and downward force to split it.
But, if I didn't have a larger knife, I would do exactly what you did.

I think it's more about the flexibilty of being able to perform the feat in various ways, given various means at hand.
Theoretically, and Generally, the longer the knife blade (provided it has equivalent heft), the more feasible to baton (split) through larger wood.

It would be much tougher for you to baton through one of those larger logs with the Fallkniven, than it would be with a Becker Brute, just for discussions sake.

Most would immediately report that the Fallkniven is the obvious higher quality blade, but the Brute happens to be better suited for splitting down a 12" diamter log than the Fallkniven.

Any of these discussions can boil down to what you are carrying, or have with you, at the time.

I would much rather skin a rabbit or clean a fish with the Fallkniven than a Brute. ;)
Click to expand...

And my twenty dollar maul from wal mart is even better :p
 
You don't need a big knife to baton smaller limbs. But it sure helps to have a little more blade if you're splitting larger limbs.

Great pics. :thumbup:
 
Nice illustration. Like others have stated, a larger blade would make easy work of that sized limb, but my preference leans towards the small to medium sized blade and I have bataned my BRKT Northstar and Mora 2000, both with very good results.
 
I never split limbs that big with a knife. If I can get enough smaller stuff split to get a fire going and a decent bed of coals I can usually get the bigger stuff hot enough to catch.

PS Fallkniven:thumbup: Great knife in a number of ways.:D
 
kr1 said:
... and also useable to skin a squirrel or clean a fish. :p :D

KR
Click to expand...

"Squirrels mauled in forest, film at 11"


Hollowdweller, I see your point, and I will add to that, as the limbs get larger, we are also looking at the fact that someone needs a much more capable saw to produce the logs to be batonned.

An 8 inch folding saw is going to do OK yielding 4" diameter, maybe 6 inch diameter "logs" , tops. Beyond that someone would need a larger buck/frame/bow saw before needing to split 12"+ diameter logs in the wilderness.

I don't do a lot of wood splitting for purposes of a fire, at all, around camp.
Maybe I "wood" do so if faced with a soaking wet forest?
I would be more inclined to be splitting/froeing to get straight peices for building things.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top