Here's a link to an eye opening test involving the batoning of fixed blade knives with hidden tangs. If you do it exactly right, your knife might not break....

http://www.barkriverknives.com/docs/batoning.pdf

I have got to ask a question which has vexed me for some time. Why baton at all? I gather one of the more common reasons is to get at the dry interiors of branches for dry firewood.

When I build a fire, I start out with small stuff, generally snapped off of standing trees, up to about wrist size, Even in rainy weather, these are always quite dry. If I want larger pieces, I will prop a long so the middle is unsupported, and either stomp on with my boot, or drop a large rock on it. Very quickly I can produce enough wood for an all night fire, if necessary.

I have never felt the need to beat a poor knife through wood, nor have I ever witnessed it. What gives?

Exactly, and it is for this reason that carrying a knife capable of batoning work is a good idea IMO. I have plenty of experience doing this. I keep a Cold Steel Bushman by the fireplace for batoning through small logs or taking corners off of bigger logs when kindling is needed. I try to keep some on hand but somehow I always seem to run out. When out and about, though, there are other things to consider, even more so if in a survival situation. Given a choice I would rather save the energy and do like you said, gathering small dead twigs straight off the trees. Usually dry, but unfortunately maybe not always the case in a survival situation. You may not always be able to find dry kindling this way and batoning may be the only way to get it. Not desirable but good to know my knife can do it if needed. Another possibility is you found some kindling but you need to produce additional kindling. Kindling may be in short supply for some reason. Maybe you used your supply up. Maybe you didn't gather enough. It may be easier and use less energy to baton some of your existing fuel supply rather than leaving camp and hiking around for the purpose of finding some. Or it may be safer to baton than to walk around looking for more kindling, especially if it is after dark.

There is another concern with all this and that is safety. Batoning is not the safest thing in the world to do. Imagine trying to survive AND contend with a bad injury. Same goes for breaking small logs with your feet or knees. We all make compromises and do things we might consider safe to do but we need to think it through. Batoning for me is a last resort but I am still more comfortable carrying equipment I know is up to the task.

That was an interesting read.

I tend to baton a knife just about the same way I drive a chisel with a mallet and that means with a straight line from the mallet through the cutting edge.

I find most knives are not thick enough metal and the handles are not made right to be used like a chisel, especially if it is heavy use.

When I am driving a knife with a mallet or baton it is just for cutting out notches or for starting a split.
For heavier cuts there are usually saws and axes.

I should mention that I have broken a few wood chisels over the years too.

Batoning is a key technique for splitting one small round of wood to produce a flat hearthboard, a thin stick that can be carved into a round spindle, and flat handhold to make a bow-drill fire starting kit. Also used to get flat pieces of wood to use for coal-burning into spoons, bowls, and platters.

Use of thicker bladed, full tang knives recommended.

Here's where a difference in climate might make a difference in opinion. In my area, kindling wood is often wet on the outside. Last year when I was solo camping in the northwoods, it rained for several days. Of course I carry an axe and saw in my truck, but when hunting the backwoods on foot, I need to get dry kindling and small wood for a cooking/warming fire. Paper Birch bark was always my first choice, as it peels off easily without hurting the tree, and burns when wet. These trees are dying back now and are not as common in my area. Walking with my hunting gear and PSK etc, I have no place for an axe, so I use my retractable saw to cut, and my knife to split 2-3 inch branches to get at the dry heartwood.

Climate will make a big difference. I started out routinely building a campfire for cooking and warmth many years ago. In part because I was often venturing above timberline where no fuels were available, I purchased a small Primus stove. It made cooking infinitely easier and quicker, providing faithful service for many years. It is now semi-retired on a shelf above my desk.

Now I have switched almost entirely to stoves, also in part to their less conspicuous environmental footprint. But I still include emergency tinder and multiple means of getting a flame because getting a fire going too often can be the difference between life and death.

My favorite for absolute simplicity, carried for a long time on SAR missions, is a Trangia alcohol stove, together with a small, light, cookset. The Trangia is great because it can carry its fuel self contained. Just don't pack it inside the cookset. Guess how I know this....

The loaded Trangia is still lighter than the typical Rambo scimitar.

Hikermor, you have to get out of the CA environment <G> Remember the entire state has been a drought since I was born - the pine is fairly dry, with pine cones and needles all over the mountains. Or scrub brush in the chaparrel. Or joshua trees in... Joshua Tree. My point is, lots of dry (or drier) tinder, and little precipitation to soak it.

Since moving from CA, I've tried batoning a few times. Usually the vegetation is lusher and harder to light than the stuff you and I are used to. Birch, cattails, etc are all "wet weather" types of plants, which implies that the weather tends to be, well, wetter. Even the moss and leaves are usually somewhat damp, in comparison to the bone-dry CA environments.

To summarize, yeah, a hunk of redwood, or pine, or walnut, or oak in CA is usually dried out and fairly easy to light. Picking up a hunk of wood from anywhere west of the Rockies and it's likely to not be "dried," harder to keep going, and harder to start.

One more thing - you shouldn't be snapping branches or twigs off living trees! Smokey would bite you for that.

I have kindled quite a few fires in rather wet conditions - in China, Korea, Japan, Alaska, and several western states other than California. The thing in really soggy conditions is to plan ahead and gather and keep your tinder dry. Once our fire was going, we could always dry damp firewood without problems.

Better yet, as I eventually learned, is obtain and use a stove and the appropriate fuel. Dependable stoves can be obtained at a coast ranging from zero (recycled pop/food cans) to units costing over $100. Even packing a stove and fuel, I make sure I have the means to kindle a traditional fire should the stove go belly up. A fire can be absolutely critical to survival, as well as to that nice cup of tea that makes life worth living..

I can only think of a few "front country" type campgrounds where there are prohibitions against taking dead wood from trees - think Yosemite Valley. Imagine the stink that batoning would raise in that kind of environment! I am fairly sure of the regs here - I was a "smokie" (National Park Service) for over forty years. In any case, given a reasonably valid survival situation, Smokie tends to look the other way