Battoning with a Mora

[Ed W]

Hi,

I'm having a bit of a posting frenzy at the moment.

Can anyone tell me if you can batton with a Mora 'training knife'. I'm not sure if the knife is really strong enough to do things like that.

Cheers

 

[Goose]

I'm not sure if you are supposed to either but I did the other day! It seemed ok when I finished.

 

[Hoodoo]

I think you will be ok. I've done it quite a few times as I am sure many others have as well. Jimbo has written about it quite a bit on his website (sorry, don't have the link handy but I'm sure somehere can post it). At any rate, buy two and carry one for a spare. They don't weigh much so you won't be adding to your load and at the price, if you do happen to break one with a baton, you can afford it.

 

[Andy]

I've done it quite a few times and it's fine. feels like it's bending if your a bit of vertical though. I find it's not all that good for it as it's so thin it doesn't have much of a wedge effect though

 

[odin13]

i do it all the time, seems fine for me, but its my only knife so i dont no how it should feel.
cheers,
alex

 

[ChrisKavanaugh]

I'll never forget watching a friend who read one of my survival books and decided to create his first fire. We are talking somebody who thought lighting a gas stove was on a level with QUEST FOR FIRE with thus Spracht Zarathustra playing in the background. He takes his Marine K-Bar and tries to split a billet of OAK at least 2' in diameter and seasoned to a grey, spiderweb and dirt piebald bit of nastyness. He managed a faint indentation before duplicating Aragorn's shards of Narsil Moras make great feather sticks and kindling wood. Anything bigger I either reach for an axe or break things up between a treefork or go to field carved wedges.

 

[Ed W]

Thanks everyone for the input.

I'll give it a go and see what happens after all it was only a tenner.

 

[brian6244]

I actually find the thinness of the Mora to be an asset when batoning against the grain.

 

[Hoodoo]

Keep in mind that when you use a baton, there's no "law" that sez ya gotta hit the spine as hard as you can.

 

[OldJimbo]

Moras work fine for green saplings when you know to baton without killing or maiming yourself from a springboarding piece of wood. I've dropped more than a few trees of more than 8" which at first would seem impossible with a 6" blade. At that point a person is into dangerous territory, though.
They'll also split wood which splits easily - but tough wood is best left to a wooden wedge and baton as Chris says.. Once you get to sectioning up pieces of seasoned wood of more than 4", though, a knife and baton becomes a chore whereas a tiny hatchet or saw will get lots of wood sectioned in no time.
People might want to look at this thread on outdoors-magazine for some pictures of the actual tangs on various Moras. They vary greatly:
Tangs

I'm always amazed that my original old wood handled Mora is not only still in one piece but looks like outlasting me - despite LOTS of batonning.

Toward the bottom of this page are pics of me sectioning up a log with wooden wedges and baton made by a Vaughan mini hatchet. And that's not a cedar or pine. A Mora would have taken longer to make wedges, but it would have worked.
log splitting at bottom of page

One pic..

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