Dont batton with your knife

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Monikieman

Full Member
Jun 17, 2013
915
11
Monikie, Angus
Surely at the end of the day it's a sharp thing for doing things that need a sharp thing.

You can't do it with another stick or a stone!

It's also MY KNIFE and it never came with destructions.

Now, I must confess that I have a large screw driver and I've used it for things other than putting screws in:eek: and also a few cheap chisels (you should see some of the terrible things I've used them for)
 

tsitenha

Nomad
Dec 18, 2008
384
1
Kanata
At the end of the day to each his own, I prefer a hatchet but would never consider leaving home with out a knife also.
I would never lend my ax, my knife, my rifle, my canoe or my dog bring your own.
My wife makes her own choices :) She barely tolerates me!!!!!!
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
At the end of the day to each his own, I prefer a hatchet but would never consider leaving home with out a knife also.
I would never lend my ax, my knife, my rifle, my canoe or my dog bring your own.
My wife makes her own choices :) She barely tolerates me!!!!!!

I'd never lend my wife either.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
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......

I vaguely remember a thread a year or two back about this. Someone posting about should people wear their knives at a bushcraft show?
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
.....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......

I've known dozens (if not over a hundred) farmers and loggers who cleaned their axes by swiping them in the ground. Or burying the bit into the ground while they burned the old handle out.
 

tom.moran

Settler
Nov 16, 2013
986
0
40
Swindon, Wiltshire
ok so here is what i get from what people are saying. we know that for splitting logs you 'should' use an axe. for slitting small pieces of kindling, you can use your knife and just use your arm strength. BUT for me and im sure it is for most people, learning bushcraft is a way of learning survival skills. in a perfect world you would always have you axe with you if you need it, but what if you dont? well, im very happy to use my very cheap heavy duty knife to learn to do it and make my mistakes using that knife so that if a situation arises that i have to use a nice knife to do it then i know what im doing. i also have never seen the rule book that says thou shalt not baton with a knife, only people who have come to the opinion that it is wrong and not the done thing. in my mind it would be like turning up to some bushcraft meeting and people turning you away because you were wearing shorts and it was raining
 
N

Nomad

Guest
While there is merit in the idea of using the right tool for the job, there is a risk of pigeonholing the job or jobs that a particular tool should, or could, be used for.

What, exactly, is a tool? It's nothing more than a shape, made of materials of some kind, that we use to get things done. It seems to me that it doesn't matter what you do with it, perhaps with the proviso that it doesn't get damaged or its working life isn't dramatically shortened from what would normally be expected. (Using a tool will wear it out, misusing a tool will wear it out quicker, or plain break it.)

It seems to me that batoning is perfectly okay, provided one is sympathetic to the strengths and limitations of the tool. Splitting a 2" log by hitting the back of the knife with another 2" log would seem fine. Driving the knife through a tight knot in well seasoned hardwood by belting the spine with a club hammer is maybe not fine. It's all a matter of degree.
 

SJStuart

Settler
Jan 22, 2013
997
2
Suffolk Coast
I love using the right tool for the job. That's why I always bring a complete fabrication workshop with me everywhere I go... because you just never know when you might need a CNC machine, or an English Wheel, or an extruder...

</sarcasm>

You have with you what you have with you, and if you're serious about what you're doing... you learn everything those items can do, regardless of what their original intended purpose was.
All these "use a froe" people would either find themselves dead quite quickly (for the pedants who'll no doubt say "a froe won't save your life" or some equally stupid hair splitting cr@p, I'm referring to the absence of creative thinking) were they stranded in the wilderness, or - whether they care to admit it or not - they'd suck it up and use their knife to baton where absolutely essential.

You can't always take the workshop with you, nor should you try. The best woodsmen take as little as they can, and know how best to use everything they take.

Still, I've come to expect this "take the kitchen sink" attitude what with all the car glampers out there these days.
 

carabao

Forager
Oct 16, 2011
226
0
hove
So why was I issued a survival knife for if it shouldn't be used for doing hard stuff. Sorry being pedantic, blame the red wine.
 

SJStuart

Settler
Jan 22, 2013
997
2
Suffolk Coast
Battoning is akin to using a scretdriver to open a can of paint.

I don't know what a "scretdriver" is... but if you mean "screwdriver" then I assume you're championing the fact that it will actually do that job just fine, without causing any damage to anything.
If you have a problem with that, well then might I suggest that you're just being excessively narcy?
 

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