Batoning...Why?!

Nessmuk, Kephart, Lewis & Clark, Daniel Boone, they all carried a chopping tool. Learn from the experts who lived the life.
Many people don't consider a simple hatchet as very useful. I think that's because they aren't skilled at using it, as evidenced by many videos on YT. It takes practice. You can skin game, make kindling and feather sticks, notch trap triggers, chop veggies, etc all with that "useless" hatchet. Plus you can chop wood much easier than with a knife.

Check out Nessmuk's Woodcraft and Camping. He was minimalist, but he always carried his double bit axe.
 
aktrekker said:
Nessmuk, Kephart, Lewis & Clark, Daniel Boone, they all carried a chopping tool. Learn from the experts who lived the life.
Many people don't consider a simple hatchet as very useful. I think that's because they aren't skilled at using it, as evidenced by many videos on YT. It takes practice. You can skin game, make kindling and feather sticks, notch trap triggers, chop veggies, etc all with that "useless" hatchet. Plus you can chop wood much easier than with a knife.

Check out Nessmuk's Woodcraft and Camping. He was minimalist, but he always carried his double bit axe.
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So we have been told - 100's and 100's of times.

How about a real thread on George Washington Sears - including how he often slept in lodges, sponged meals off those he came across, and wrote bitterly of those who would not feed him. All while the parish had to take care of the family he abandoned.
 
My preferred technique for processing wood...

[video=youtube_share;hOMxnWPgUlk]http://youtu.be/hOMxnWPgUlk[/video]
 
I believe one of the wisest comments on the whole knife vs. axe vs. saw issue was made by scwareuroi back on 8/28/13. He said, "I believe there is more than one way to do things, some tools are better than others at certain jobs, but sometimes they aren't so much better that it makes a substantial difference, depending on the task."

The "best" tool is the one you have with you when you need it and the one you know how to use.
 
Then we should all be using stone knives. Baton that.;)
But to each his own. Everyone has their opinion and their own style. And if all you have is a knife then use it (unlike some who say not to use it at all if possible:confused:).

I would like to ask a serious question.
Nobody here (I hope) would ever consider deliberately placing themselves in a real survival situation (like heading into the deep woods with only a knife).
So why would you deliberately place yourself in a situation where you only have a knife?
 
aktrekker said:
Then we should all be using stone knives. Baton that.;)
But to each his own. Everyone has their opinion and their own style. And if all you have is a knife then use it (unlike some who say not to use it at all if possible:confused:).

I would like to ask a serious question.
Nobody here (I hope) would ever consider deliberately placing themselves in a real survival situation (like heading into the deep woods with only a knife).
So why would you deliberately place yourself in a situation where you only have a knife?
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I wouldn't. But I would choose a better tool than a hatchet. YMMV.

I agree with Thomas, and don't much care about Sear's opinions on anything.
 
I prefer my hatchet if I am car camping or if it's a short hike in.

If its a long hard hike, I try to avoid splitting wood but if I need to then its baton time because axe is too heavy.
 
aktrekker said:
Then we should all be using stone knives. Baton that.;)
But to each his own. Everyone has their opinion and their own style. And if all you have is a knife then use it (unlike some who say not to use it at all if possible:confused:).

I would like to ask a serious question.
Nobody here (I hope) would ever consider deliberately placing themselves in a real survival situation (like heading into the deep woods with only a knife).
So why would you deliberately place yourself in a situation where you only have a knife?
Click to expand...

Why go outside at all? Why camp when you have a house? Why ride a bike if you have a car? Why hunt with a bow in an era of firearms? Why hunt or fish or garden at all, with a store down the street? I hate to break it to the community here, but there is extremely little point to our hobby beyond the fact that we enjoy it. In specific answer to your question, perhaps because they like knives more than hatchets.

Any non-idiot can baton a knife without breaking it. Any idiot can break a hatchet.

Damn, I really do think I'm getting old in forum terms...after all of these years, more and more, my reaction to so many of the questions on here is, "Why do you care what we think? You're an adult human being, stop seeking reassurance in your opinions. Wait a minute...I'M an adult human being, why do I continue typing? Because being grumpy is fun, dammit! I need a beer.

I'll leave y'all with this----why would anyone carry a knife and a hatchet in a world with khukuries? ;)
 
This is strange... the OP is not asking advice on batoning, so why all the bashing and condescending remarks? Without speaking for the OP, he was simply expressing his opinion of batoning, not asking if it is viable. I personally share his same opinion, I think batoning is ridiculous, and I'm sure I'm not the first person to post that in this forum... therefore I will not justify my opinion, since others have said it before me.
 
Fine! And just for the record, I think people who like hatchets are...well, people who like hatchets. There, I said it.
 
:highly_amused:
Sorry, I find this all so hilarious.
I really was asking a serious question, and hoped it might be taken that way. But with as many times as this has been brought up, and as passionate everyone is about it, I should have known better. Emotions always win out over reason.

There should be a new sticky like other forums have. "Read This Before You Post". Number 1 rule - never ask about batoning.
 
It is funny, no doubt about it. I'm less sure that it is just the triumph of emotion over reason that makes it so though.

Personally, I think the batoning thing is such a shit magnet because it is possible to make any case you like to a very extreme degree. It's a lovely topic in which one could have a newbie, an ignoramus, a person with true wilderness expedition skills, a troll, a bigot, a social climber that believes knife brand X is a badge of office, a historic collector, and a knife designer with significant expertise, and despite that none really hold with each other none of them are wrong. Whether that makes for a fertile soil for discussion or a manure heap from which one can only draw a bad smell remains to be demonstrated.

I agree with a lot of what timpani wrote. Most of this stuff isn't like the days of yore in which people naturally converged on the best tools to solve problems. A lot of it is whimsical and completely arbitrary, and the problems to be solved are often deliberately contrived. I'm not saying all of it is contrived. I think some are looking for a good tool selection for them with a similar mentality to which a guy which might be trying to dump pack weight by finding the ideal trade off between kip-mat and sleeping bag weight. Others a more trying to validate why they bought a pair of Le Chameau Jameson GTX Full Zip in a world that has the Aigle Parcours 2s in. I believe that validation thing can be central to a lot of this.

If you've shelled out a bunch of money on a knife that is a quarter inch thick and weighs an lb or so and you don't baton, or chop chain, or pry paving slabs up you're probably going to feel like a bit of a clown. You've bought an encumbrance, a lemon, a millstone to hang about your neck. If you do do those things you can validate the knife. You can feel vindicated in your choice. You might even form a self-help group for people that like same brand, “we have the best batoning, chopping prying knives on the planet”. Others may know you'd have done better to have bought a stove, a decent sleeping bag and a water filter if you were actually doing something with legitimate incidental tasks, [spend a dew days wildlife watching in the sticks]. But you can't be wrong. Plenty of people that don't have a garden go to forest to make a fort, chop stuff up, baton logs for a bonfire, and the wildlife is just the backing track. Unless they are doing vandalism there can be nothing whatsoever wrong with those people beating their knives 'till they are totally dead horses if that's their thing. Whimsy and arbitrary gives the permission, and while they live that cannot be subjugated.
 
t1mpani said:
Damn, I really do think I'm getting old in forum terms...after all of these years, more and more, my reaction to so many of the questions on here is, "Why do you care what we think? You're an adult human being, stop seeking reassurance in your opinions. Wait a minute...I'M an adult human being, why do I continue typing? Because being grumpy is fun, dammit! I need a beer.
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Thanks for my first good laugh of the morning. :D

t1mpani said:
I'll leave y'all with this----why would anyone carry a knife and a hatchet in a world with khukuries?
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Because they either can't appreciate, or are incapable of wielding, the immense power of a good bolo?
pirateev.gif
 
Baton to get kindling.
Not to split logs.

Brain...use it. :thumbup:
 
in regards to the OP
Why is a knife maker selling buck knives ? And why did he replace the buck with another mass produced item ?
Im just curious .
btw batoning is not knife abuse ... its just something to talk about that gets people to get armchair experts all riled up ..
 
Battoning is not new it has been around for hundreds of years. Many a wood log has had a piece of it sliced off for making shingles.
There is a old timers tool called a Froe.

It is a great way to slice off some wood from a log. Did some froes bet broken I bet some did.

A piece if steel sharp on one side and they hit, pounded, battoned, beat that piece of steel through a log using another log to slice off a piece of for making a shingle or maybe for something else. Can a axe be used for slicing off a piece wood, Yes.


Do yo think old Boone, Nessmuk , Kephart and all the rest of the old timers just went and bought there shingles?

I bet not I bet they made them using a piece of steel. Like a froe. A Piece of steel with a handle on it. Some froes even had different angles on them.

So to recap. It is ok to slice through wood using a piece of steel the length of steel you use is up to you. It could 6" long or 16" long and the thickness again is up to you, also. Since the old timers did and it worked for them I suggest you try it yourself and see what all the fun is about.

If you decide you do not like to batton( hit the back of a piece of steel ) through a piece of wood, then Don't.

Maybe you might like to just saw your wood into pieces instead of slicing it off.

That is it folks .... Either way will get the job done.

Bryan

PS if any of you need to see a pic of this process( using a piece of steel to slice off a piece of wood from wood) just let me know and I will post one.
 
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