Batoning?

[Dogshirt]

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).

[beowulf]

it works in a pinch , but I dont recommend it !

[Red Badger]

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?

[Dogshirt]

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.

[hotfxr]

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.

[Watauga]

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 ;-)