Dont batton with your knife

[Toddy]

We get dead standing pine. It's not mushy; it's not in the least mushy, and it doesn't push over, (unless it's growing in a bog) we need bowsaws to take them down safely.
The Forestry Commission often leave dead standing when they clear fell an area. The birds and insects soon turn them into white skeletons that the wind slowly breaks up. I have very rarely seen rusty red crumbled timber that someone said was pine, but that was on a sandy coastal site in Wales. We called that punk.
Maybe mushy means something else in your neck of the woods

M

 

[santaman2000]

I suspect our terms are the same. Rather it's our climates that are different.

 

[Uilleachan]

Either way, it's very wet with us at the moment and above around 1500' +, frozen (frozen at sea level at the moment but that'll change later as the next big bit of weather blows in), so no dry dead wood anywhere, well unless one is battoning with a long bar Husqvarna into old and big fallen timber.

Birch burns green, not very well but it does burn with enough encouragement and as green wood is all thats available to anyone daft enough to be out in the woods this festive, a pile of waxy bark and a big heap of the thinest twigs will get a fire going, then a diet of lots of finger twigs will get it to the stage one can cook with, build it big enough and it may even throw some heat, no battoning involved.

I can honestly say, in all my years I've never needed to batton wood to build a fire, I'll go further and say I've never needed to split any wood to build a fire outdoors ever. The only tool I've found useful is a saw and even then I've never been in a position where I couldn't have gotten by without one, rather I've found a saw opens up opportunity for otherwise unmovable stuff, jumbled and locked drift wood and semi still attached bog wood, for example, so a saw is a labour saving tool imo.

Bog wood (old pine) is the only wood I've ever come across that'll burn straight from being pulled from the water/waterlogged peat, provided one has enough kindling to heat and ignite the bog tars and resins contained within. Bog wood is just wonderfuel.

 

[CACTUS ELF]

Not sure why anyone in the uk would bother cutting down, whittling, battoning or anything else other than for fun as we're only ever a stone's throw from a Tesco supermarket. Pop in and buy what you need then head back to the great outdoors or Go Outdoors if Tesco are short on supplies

 

[rik_uk3]

Uilleachan makes a good point, why the need to baton in the first place. IF there is plenty of wood then you build up your fire and feed long logs as it burns.

 

[ozzy1977]

If wood needs to be split then surly the tool for the job is an axe ?

 

[copper_head]

This still going?

 

[tom.moran]

If wood needs to be split then surly the tool for the job is an axe ?

i dont own an axe yet. but i do have a £7 hultafors heavy duty knife that spits enough kindling up to get a fire going though. never done it any damage.

This still going?

will it ever stop?

 

[ozzy1977]

Just because a knife hasn't been damaged when used does not mean that it is the tool for the job or that it wont break

 

[tom.moran]

i do agree with you, which is why i dont baton with any other knife. i pretty much only use my HD knife for 'things you shouldnt use a knife for' and it takes it every time. at the end of the day, i dont understand why people get so upset by it, people will do what they want with their own kit. i know an axe is better for splitting wood but as i said i dont have an axe, but im pretty good at firelighting so only need a few bit of kindling to get a blaze going. most time i dont use and form of tool when preparing wood for a fire as im lazy and camp in a pine forest and if i cant prep it by breaking it with my body it gets burnt whole

 

[ozzy1977]

I don't know why people get upset about it either, it is a bit pathetic, your toys do what you want with them, but just don't ask to borrow mine, easiest way to loose friends

 

[tom.moran]

yep, agree totally. to be honest with you, im glad i do it with my knife, i feel ive gained a reasonable skill level with it but once i get my SFA i doubt ill do it again unless im axelss/in an actual survival situation/or teaching someone else to do it.

 

[peaks]

Plenty of life in this dead horse yet..........

As above - people do what they want with their own kit......its each to his own

 

[Stew]

If wood needs to be split then surly the tool for the job is an axe ?

Well it depends on what it's being split for, so not necessarily.

 

[John Fenna]

For me it is a case of the right tool to make life easy - if I want to split big wood I will use a big tool (an axe) : if I want to split small wood for kindling I will use a small tool ( a knife) - sometimes the knife will need a little more encouragement than the pressure of my left hand and so it will get a tap with a light baton....

 

[brancho]

For me it is a case of the right tool to make life easy - if I want to split big wood I will use a big tool (an axe) : if I want to split small wood for kindling I will use a small tool ( a knife) - sometimes the knife will need a little more encouragement than the pressure of my left hand and so it will get a tap with a light baton....

Now that I agree with and that is what I teach my Scouts. It is safer to use a knife on small stuff as the bladed implement is not being swung at a tiny stick. I do give something decent to use though.


The Splitter 1 by alf.branch, on Flickr

 

[rik_uk3]

Given the amount of car campers here why not just pick up a net or two of ready cut kindling from Tesco or a local garage and that way you never need to use your knife for much more than chopping up veg for your bushcraft stew? Buy some logs too and your axe stays pristine

I remember a camp from a few years ago when a member was showing off his new knife (and very nice it was too) and as it was handed to another member he without thinking bent down and picked up a twig. "DON'T USE IT FOR 'FLIPPIN HECK SAKE' (words to that effect) DON'T USE IT" came the ear piercing scream and the knife was grabbed back. The purple faced owner looked down at his blade and muttered "just don't use it all right, just don't use it." The knife went back into the car and was not seen again that trip. In fact after throwing his conniption fit the member was not really right all day and went home the next morning.

I know you should never handle another man's tool (no smut please) but at times it seems a tad OCD at the way 'we' can react to simple actions.

 

[SJStuart]

Given the amount of car campers here why not just pick up a net or two of ready cut kindling from Tesco or a local garage and that way you never need to use your knife for much more than chopping up veg for your bushcraft stew? Buy some logs too and your axe stays pristine

I remember a camp from a few years ago when a member was showing off his new knife (and very nice it was too) and as it was handed to another member he without thinking bent down and picked up a twig. "DON'T USE IT FOR 'FLIPPIN HECK SAKE' (words to that effect) DON'T USE IT" came the ear piercing scream and the knife was grabbed back. The purple faced owner looked down at his blade and muttered "just don't use it all right, just don't use it." The knife went back into the car and was not seen again that trip. In fact after throwing his conniption fit the member was not really right all day and went home the next morning.

I know you should never handle another man's tool (no smut please) but at times it seems a tad OCD at the way 'we' can react to simple actions.

A knife is made for one purpose and one purpose only.... to show off to others </sarcasm>

 

[Toddy]

I reckon that if you've got the tool, learn to use it.

There are an awful lot of drawer queens that never see any work at all. Folks might as well buy jewellery.

Different thing using a knife/axe/sharp of someone else that you don't know well. It takes time to put a really good edge on a blade, and not everyone is careful with them.
I watched a father who was quite happy for his daughter to swipe his axe into the ground, "so the edge wouldn't cut anyone", and thought that there was no way my tools were going anywhere near her. He got angry and defensive when someone politely suggested that there were other ways to the girl, and the daughter snapped back at the polite advice too.
Each to their own, I suppose.

Battoning though.....it's just another bushcraft skill

M

 

[ozzy1977]

Tool abuse is not a skill