Please school me on batoning firewood

[mtheo]

From grade school through college myself and an couple of friends would go on hiking trips generally two to three days long roaming the rivers and railroad tracks and state parks.
As none of us had money our kit was generally simple and home made. My sleep kit was a scavenged canvas awning from the local dump that served as a ground cover and folded over me to keep the Mosquitos off. My fire kit was a glass Alka-Seltzer bottle filled with kitchen matches. Cutlery for all of us was generally some type of pocket knife like a Barlow or stockman. These were sufficient for cutting willows for fishing poles, dressing squirrel/ rabbit or fish for our meals. We experimented with borrowed hatchets, axes and corn knives. Nothing seemed worth the effort to carry. I once buried a full sized axe to retrieve on the way back as I tired of carrying it.

When it came to campfires we would gather dry tinder and twigs along with finger sized twigs and eventually move up to arm sized branches that we would shorten by levering them between two closely growing trees or burning them in two. I don't remember ever splitting firewood on a hiking trip.

What is the reason for all of this batoning large survival knives to split firewood.
Frequently knife reviews seem quite involved with expending kilocalories and pints of perspiration demonstrating the batonability of the knife in review.
Is the ability to baton your knife really necessary for firecraft or is this just a contrivance to demonstrate the toughness of a knife?

 

[williamlayton]

You know---you really know.
Blessings

 

[jlrhiner]

I've been an outdoorsman for almost 50 years. I have never beat one of my knives (knifes) through anything. If the firewood was too big, we broke it, axed it or found smaller.

God help the man I catch beating on the spine of one of my knives.

 

[Nico Testosteros]

I also think batoning wood is dumb. Of course, I no longer see the need for fires while backpacking either.




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[StrawHat]

I had to look up batoning to see what you were talking about. A froe is perfect for that task. Also too awkward to carry on a hike. Just use smaller wood. Keep the fire small.

Kevin

 

[Fishinfool]

A knife is the wrong tool for the job. Anytime I ever felt the need to cut wood beyond what a knife could comfortably do, I used a hatchet. Unless you are trying to build a shelter, there is really no need for cutting large pieces of wood in a normal camp out situation. I usually just gather what's on the ground, breaking bigger pieces using a tree for leverage.

Larry

 

[sasu]

I have had one occasion in my life to use a knife for sort of batoning.

We were in the army (training, not war) on a guerrilla mission in the woods in the winter, which here means deep subfreezing temperatures.

We were sleeping in a small tent with a wood stove in the center for warmth. Everyone had a one hour turn to feed the stove. The firewood was collected in the forest and it was damp. The only way to have the wood burn was to make sticks less than a finger thickness.

To make those small sticks I used my knife to push through the larger piece of wood to separate a thin stick, one at a time. I remember doing that non-stop the whole hour I was responsible for the fire. But I did not baton, I used my hands to push the knife.

Other than that I have never had the need to baton wood. One reason being that I practically never make a fire in the woods, I use a gas stove to make food or eat cold food.

Off-topic:

My guerrilla training taught me to never advertise my presence with a fire and that practice has stuck with me to the civilian hiking trips. The same with flashlights, I never use one to look around because the light can be seen for miles around. I always pitch my tent in a thickly wooded spot away from any paths, where no-one will stumble on me by accident. I do not feel comfortable sleeping in a tent in a visible place. Being paranoid is comforting, he-hee. A dark forest is a very safe place to be if you know what you are doing.

 

[chief38]

When I was a Boy Scout in the 60's it was cool to hike around with a large sheath knife. The older I got the smaller my EDC or Woods knife became. While I do own a few high quality sheath knives and "outdoor belt knives" I almost never carry them anymore. My EDC knife is a large 3 3/4" Marbles Gladstone Stockman with 3 blades and I have taken this knife on just about every camping and hunting trip since I bought it in 2001. It has never failed me and I have never felt under bladed. Truth be told I can't remember having to hack down wood for even small kindling. YMMV

 

[Marshwheeling]

I didn't know what batoning was until I joined this forum. Now I know:

1. It is a way to make kindling in the rare event you can't find any.
2. It is a good way to wreck a folding knife,
3. but not a Benchmade, which can take it (courtesy of my son-in-law, who didn't know any better).

 

[islamoradamark]

to much work to baton and unnecessary i just use a chain saw when done i just kick back and have a cold one

 

[Rogue Wizard]

Good way to ruin a knife. There are other options and my knife is more valuable for other things to risk damaging it. There is an art to "gathering" and the construction of a fire-pit/pile. Back in the late 60's a friend told me to carry some lint from a dryer. You can compact quite a bit of it into a baggy or other small container. I have used that to start fires. To this day, I use lint to start the fires in my wood-burner. Lint burns easy, hot and fast.

 

[GrayGhost99]

Not belly button lint

 

[GatorFarmer]

Works fine to split wood to get a firing going. You never know, you might be stuck with wet wood and have to get to the dry parts. The only knives I have broken doing it were ones of light or dubious contruction. It was originally an emergency survival technique, but with the right knife you can essentially sit and split a cord of firewood.

I have extensively used a $13 full tang MTech to split would, chop through light metal, cut off rivets, chop down small trees....Looks terrible now, but survived fine. So you do not need to spend a lot on a knife that will hold up.

My daily carry Aitor JK II is not a full tang but I have used it to split reasonably sized pieces of wood without harm to the knife.

 

[Mickey D]

I thought this was going to be an LAPD thread.

 

[BAM-BAM]

The only times I'd see the need is;

An emergency where I was "wet" and didn't have time to do it right.........

I've also seen threads where folks hiking the AT can't find wood at the designated camp sites...... so maybe.

While I have "big knives" Cold Steel and Hogue..... I generally only have a Kershaw folder and maybe the smaller version of the K-Bar (5")

 

[30-30remchester]

Like others I had never even heard the word batoning, and had to look it up on google. Not knowing what it was called, I have been batoning for years. There are daily carry knives then there are working knives. Two entirely different things. My daily carry is a vintage 1940's Case green bone handled 2 blade folder. My work knife is a Leatherman Wave. The main blade has been pounded, bent, and burned. It has been used as a gasket scraper, pry bar, paint scraper, punch and batoning tool. These are just a few of its daily duties. After 15 years of hard use, the blade was loose. It had been used in my guiding career, construction career, and firefighting career. I decided to take my bride of 42 years on a 5 day cruise to the Bahamas . The cruise line found it in my luggage and destroyed it.

 

[williamlayton]

There has always been more little than big and if yo can build a fairly substantial fire it will dry out the big wood.
Camp fires are made for little wood and not fire-place fire wood.
Blessings

 

[Jack Flash]

... There are daily carry knives then there are working knives. Two entirely different things. ... My work knife is a Leatherman Wave. ...

Just slightly off topic, but my belt knife for knocking around in the woods/camping is an AK-47 bayonet. I bought several when you could get them at gun shows for $10 or $12 bucks each.

It is a nice size and seems pretty much indestructible. If I do ever wreck it, I've got spares. I have never used it to field dress a deer, but I bet it would work great.

 

[jack the toad]

Just slightly off topic, but my belt knife for knocking around in the woods/camping is an AK-47 bayonet. I bought several when you could get them at gun shows for $10 or $12 bucks each.

It is a nice size and seems pretty much indestructible. If I do ever wreck it, I've got spares. I have never used it to field dress a deer, but I bet it would work great.

+1
I use milsurp Cetme used bayos that I found for $3 (yes, $3) each including sheath.
So far they work good and I've not had any problems or complaints. I keep one strapped to my medium ALICE for when g-kids and I go to the woods.
I've given most away to friends but have a couple left. Should last me my tour.

 

[Smith357]

I don't get the whole beating on a knife with a log. Splitting firewood and felling trees is the job the axe and hatchet was designed to do. One could dig a hole with a knife too, but shovels work better.