EDIT....Sorry Wayne, I've cross posted with you. I agree wholeheartedly
It's a skill, understand how to do it. Don't hit your knife with anything hard enough to mark the metal and it'll be fine.
Ye gods, folks scrape firesteels with their knives :yikes: battoning is just splitting the fibres apart enough to let the timber split down it's length under any extra pressure. Learn to make and use wedges.
If I can do it and not bust my knives, then surely the younger, much fitter and stronger males can too.
M