Would you baton your only blade?

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brians

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Apr 22, 2006
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If only one blade at your disposal in a given survival situation, would you use it to baton for firewood? If so, under what circumstance?

Or, would you treat it with great care to prolong it's effective use? (i.e. must not break precious :)).

If preserving the blade, what other methods would you use to split wood?

I've successfully used the "break your knee", "the falling arch stomp", and the "adjacent tree row your boat" methods to snap wood (not really necessary), but what about splitting techniques? Any experiences would be welcomed :)
 
nope. No batoning for me if i can help it. The only knives i will baton is my Scrapyard SOD or Becker BK2, they are built to take abuse.

I prefer to split logs lengthwise using wood wedges and a round rock as a hammer. Then i just feed the logs into the fire. Nice and simple.

others milage and opinions might vary
 
If my only blade were full-tang and reasonably sturdy, I wouldn't hesitate to use it for batoning. However, I'd try to keep the work fairly undemanding. If I had to do really heavy duty batoning, I'd try to find something to use as a makeshift wedge.

If my only blade was a stick tang or a folder, I'd avoid doing it.
 
if i was forced to split wood to get a fire going (not often necessary around here...) i would make up a couple of wedges from branches. i would use my knife to start the split and then use the wedges to break the wood the rest of the way.

if i was somehow without my axe (say a dayhike gone wrong) i would be carrying one of my sticktang fixed blades and a folding saw. the stick tang blades can take plenty of beating, but i wouldn't want to abuse them. my intention with the wedges would be to minimalize the risk of damaging the knife.

the wedges also work well to split larger wood that already has some natural splits.
 
Bushman5 said:
nope. No batoning for me if i can help it. The only knives i will baton is my Scrapyard SOD or Becker BK2, they are built to take abuse.

I prefer to split logs lengthwise using wood wedges and a round rock as a hammer. Then i just feed the logs into the fire. Nice and simple.

others milage and opinions might vary
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Rockhammer, I like it.
 
Let's assume we don't have our EDC Chainsaw with us :) Only one fixed blade, no others.
 
carving wooden wedges works, but with adecent full tang knife I'd have no problem doing (sensible) battoning... I'm not going to tackling s sequoia or anything.. and in my mind there are only certain instances that require wood to be split...(soaking and i mean soaking ) conditions or if making a hearth for friction fire techs.
 
Unless there was just no choice, I would not use the knife for chopping or spiting. I can't imagine that I would be out in the woods withouit my hatchet and or saw.
 
For me , it would depend on which "only one" knife I had.

If it were an Opinel no I wouldn't, if it was my FBM sure I would.

The tool determines the tactics.
 
I don't baton period. I'd find it easier to pick up fallen limbs if that's all I had was one knife.
 
If I had a full tang knife I see no reason not to. That being said, if it was indeed my only knife I'd be more prone to starting the opening using the knife and then use wooden wedges.
 
Yeah I would, I make sure that all the knives I carry can take such abuse before I trust them to go with me !
 
Well, I believe it all comes down to what knife I had. If the knife in question isn't a full tang, no, I wouldn't. If the knife wasn't from a good company, no I wouldn't.

But, since most all of the knives that I would baton with are a good name and ful tang, most likely, yes, I would.
 
I baton every one of my fixed blades knives, so yes I would. By using my blades regularly I get a feeling for what they can do. In the field and under survival situations I'd be a little more cautious in the jobs I take on, but that wouldn't stop me from batoning. If you do the activity often enough you get a good feeling about when wood is going to give you a hard time or not. It is just as easy to make your decision to stop batoning when you feel that you are dealing with a stubborn piece of wood. Why go so far as to refrain from using your knife that way in the first place?

Anyhow, using YOUR knives (not just basing it on some test you saw on the same model of knife that you have), but actually hammering away at your own knives under regular activity should give you a feeling about their relative ability to take on punishment. I try not to buy knives that I can't fully depend on. When I get one I make sure it lives up to that claim. I'd rather have it break in my backyard or out on a dog walk playing around than when I really need it. If it has bad heat treat, I want to know before I take it on a trip. I don't do this to try and make a warranty claim, or abuse a warranty claim. I do it so I can understand how the chunk of steel in my hand performs and whether it meets my expectations.
 
pitdog said:
Yeah I would, I make sure that all the knives I carry can take such abuse before I trust them to go with me !
Click to expand...

If it was the only way to get a fire going, I'ld beat it like a red headed stepchild!!!
 
I bring two knives with me into the woods, an Aurora and a Farmer. If I ended up in a survival situation with only one of these two, I would certainly baton with the Aurora but not with the Farmer.
 
As KGD so eloquently put it, yes I would baton my EDC, however i had it custom made from 1/4 inch D2, and asked that it be made stong enough to take abuse. Still if i was in a survival situation with only the one blade I would not overly abuse it and would be more likely to notch wood and then smack it against a rock or break it.
I am assuming we are talking about firewood, rather than building a log cabin here.
 
I wouldn't baton just for the sake of doing it (under those conditions), but if necessary I would, no problem. :)
 
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