Batoning is bogus

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ricebasher302

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Can anyone PLEASE explain why batoning is such a hot topic in the "survival knife" world?

I grew up hunting, fishing and backpacking and NEVER had the need to split wood to make a campfire. Small dead branches are extremely plentiful in the forests I'm familiar with. The idea of finding larger wood, processing it into lengths only to split it into smaller wood with a frigging knife is ridiculous! Not to mention, if you were in a survival situation, why would you risk breaking your knife?

If I have branches too big to I break by hand or foot, I prop one end on a rock or log and drop another large rock in the middle to snap it. Works great. No tools required.

If I had wood large enough to need splitting, I had already cut it into lengths with a saw and had a hatchet, axe or splitting maul handy. Where in the forest will you find naturally-occurring, convenient lengths of square-butt firewood to baton into kindling?

I realize that batoning can test a blade's durability, but in my mind, it serves no real-world purpose.

Please enlighten me.
 
Agree completely. I find that people like to do it as a demonstration of a knife's toughness, but put mildly, there are exceedlingly few cases where I think it would be realistic. Ability to make a fuzz stick is probably much more useful in general.
 
I hope my post does not come across too condescending toward anyone who has used batoning as a technique to split wood. I just can't understand why it seems to be the go-to test for large "survival" type blades.
 
For those of us in wet climates it is sometimes the only way to get to dry interior of a branch/limb to help get a fire going.

Anymore, though, it is a topic without reason behind it for most.
 
I actually did it a few days ago. Used my cordless drill for a hammer, to drive my Benchmade 940 through a 2x4 to make it a 2x2. Probably about the only time I'll need to do it.
 
Used my cordless drill for a hammer, to drive my Benchmade 940 through a 2x4 to make it a 2x2
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Sometimes the job site requires more resourcefulness than being lost in the wilderness does. Been there.;)
 
Well, that and I'm just plain lazy. My van was 50' away, and there's 3 hammers and 2 saws in there. ;)
 
LOL... Here we go again!!! I'm putting the pop-corn on and waiting to see how long before the "fire pics" start showing up.
 
While batoning is not something that I care to do when an ax or saw are available I have found myself batoning as a field expedient measure. Most notably I cut a new trail(only 15 ft or so) to bypass an area where the old trail had eroded and fell 40-50 feet to the shoreline of a local reservoir. I was able to easily hack most of the branches away but there were a few that were sizable that batoning just made sense. Walking the half mile back to my truck to get my hatchet wasn't going to happen and simple bending and breaking a branch full of thorns wasn't appealing either.
As far as batoning wood to make kindling it has in my experience always been easier to use a hatchet or ax. I long ago realized that busting my behind doing camp chores just takes energy away from hunting, hiking, fishing or even time away from completing other tasks.
 
I grew up hunting, fishing and backpacking and NEVER had the need to split wood to make a campfire
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With all of that experience, I'd think you'd have had to get a fire going with wet wood at some point. I've only been camping for a few years and have been forced to split wood to get a fire going, I'm not sure how I would have done it otherwise.

"Survivalists", it seems, are fascinated with batoning because they try to milk as much utility out of their tools as possible. I would consider batoning to be extremely important to understand, but definately wouldn't go out of my way to stress my knives so when it is unnecessary.

There are tools called "axes" that work way better than any knife for splitting wood open. Pretty too...

028-1.gif
 
I am nearly 70 years old, and a knife user all my life.

And I just found out what batoning was last year on the YouTubey thingy.

I always thought batoning was something Marching Bands & Cheerleaders did!
Stupid me!

All those years, if I needed to split firewood, I used a $20 dollar camp ax or a hatchet instead of a high-dollar custom knife I happened to be carrying at the time.

rc
 
Perhaps splitting wood to find dry kindling is a possible reason to baton in a pinch. Certainly a hatchet is better suited to this, but one may not always be available.
 
It's a technique I use rarely, but do use. Mostly its for cutting a branch or 6 I didn't notice when setting up a treestand or ground blind, as I generally don't take a hatchet with me when hunting. Instead, I generally carry 2 NWA blades (a skinner and a Grohman Canadian inspired design). Sometimes a Kershaw Outcast if I'm in a big tamarack swamp. I should probably get a Marble's hatchet, but haven't yet, and the Fiskar's lives at home.

I consider it more of a field expedient technique rather than a solution, but it does work.
 
If the only thing you have with you is a knife and you need to do something like you'd be smart to use a small axe to accomplish you would probably want to know that you're not going to break that knife using it batoning.

I've only split pieces as big as a couple of inches across since I'm not building a roaring blaze. Just get to the dry interior to get a small fire started just big enough to warm up and perhaps boil a liter of water.
 
I agree that batoning when other tools are available that are better suited for the job is foolish. However, when backpacking a hatchet or small ax is the second heaviest thing on my pack only behind the tent. Shaving weight usually comes down to ounces at a time and if you can cut three to five pounds by batoning then I am all for it.

Shawn
 
I did it friday night in my living room. First fireplace fire of the year and using the wood stacked next to the fireplace last winter and my kindling box was empty, hatchet was out in the pump house and gnarly old cheap bowie was right there.

It was convinent, it worked, what else is new? It's my knife and trust me it is not worth anything to a collector.

BSA currently condemns it......guess were I learned to do it 45 years ago.

-kBob
 
I've learned how to do it, just in case. If I were out in the woods on purpose I'd be carrying a better wood-splitting tool.
 
For those of us in wet climates it is sometimes the only way to get to dry interior of a branch/limb to help get a fire going.
Click to expand...
I've had to do this but found that it is more expedient to use my knife to cut discarded plastic milk jugs,et.al., into strips to start a fire. They will light no matter how wet they are.
 
rc,
You are hilarious. I am 60 and recently learned what it is too. Prior to that I shared your belief about marching bands.
I normally use a machete. Lighter than some axes/hatchets. Just my preference.

Jim
 
I'd never even heard of it till the internet.

I should think it a bit of a paradox - being in a scenario where one may "need" to do it would be the same scenario where one would ill afford to put one's knife at risk - even if one did have a reasonable expectation that the knife might survive the task after seeing it "proven" on another knife on the internet.

On second though - I may be over judging and think I'll take my Randall down Tucson way to see if I really can cut my way out of (into?) an aircraft.
 
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