I've seen a lot of discussion about "Batoning", driving a knife through wood to split it instead of using the PROPER tool, an axe.
Just wondering if anyone here does this. To me, this is abuse of a knife, and while there MAY come a time when this could be my only option, I just don't see the point (no pun intended).
it works in a pinch , but I dont recommend it !
the only time I have ever done it was in survival situations... where the rules are tossed out anyway... I have used a knife to split small sticks and had to tap on the knife a few times to get through the green wood.... does that count as a sin?
I have done it on rare occasions, but the folks I'm talking about are the ones that do it all the time. "Why would I take a hatchet when I can do it this way?" Sure, it works, but when you break your knife you are up Manure Creek. Now you have no knife OR hatchet..
You wouldn't use a knife as a pry bar, why pretend it's a hatchet? Just my $0.02.
I had a knife I used to split wood for years. Of course it was an old cleaver (I named it Beaver) I found on the side of the road. The thought of wedging the tip of a $400 Strider into a small log sends chills up and down my wallet.
At the Shawnee Prairie Prairie days encampment. One of the skills tests in the Long hunter contest is they take away your ramrod and hand you a hickory sapling you have to split into a new Ramrod and the hike to a range area to shoot a target using that homemade Ramrod... Seems to take forever splitting the tough hickory sapling.... harder on the guy splitting the wood than the knife ;-)