Batoning wood always seemed absolutely ridiculous to me. If you’re out in the woods, how to you get a piece of wood the right length to baton through? A saw? How do you cut the tree down? An ax? A hatchet? If you have a saw, ax or hatchet, why would you baton? You can make wooden wedges that can split wood just fine.

I have studied and practiced primitive survival for over 40 years. Modern day bushcraft is a "lite" version of the 1970s and 80s Primitive Survival. If we had a knife, that was great, since we did not have to make one in the backcountry. Your knife is YOUR PRIMARY TOOL. If you are fifty or a hundred miles from civilization, you cannot run to the store and buy another knife; you cannot crank up your computer and order another one. The same is true of a real survival situation. RULE 1: No single knife will do everything needed in the backcountry well. You need at least two (2) knives; a large knife and a smaller knife. For a number of years I wore a 3.5" to 4" blade neck knife made from an old thin saw blade, and it did probably 85% of my camp tasks. I also carried a (heavier than average) 110" to 12" blade large belt knife, in my terminology my "field knife". RULE 2: NEVER EVER BATON A KNIFE. They are not made for that, and it is knife abuse. I don't care how popular it is with bushcrafters, your belt knife is too important and never was designed for such abuse. That is what a froe or an axe is for. Those two tools are made heavier than belt knives for that very reason. You can split wood and even make shakes to shingle a roof with using a froe. You can split firewood with an axe, and you can even beat an axe head into stubborn wood. Once embedded, turn it around with the wood still on the axe blade,swing it over your shoulder, and hit a solid log with the pole (hammer) side of the axe. That wood will usually split, thus using the weight of the wood. For smaller to medium ax tasks, use a tomahawk You can easily take the head off and use it as a splitting wedge. RULE 3: Learn primitive survival. Learn to go "naked into the wilderness" and survive. Once you can do that, you will never have to worry about getting lost or which modern gadget or tool you forgot to bring into the back country. Once you can do that, adding a modern tool (a knife, an axe, a saw, etc) will enable you to do so much more. Tools are truly force multipliers. And if you are careless or just unfortunate enough to break your knife 50 or 100 miles from civilization, then it is inconvenient, but you will know how to replace it with a flint blade or a stone axe head hafted to a stout branch. Or, as I always did, carry a backup knife, usually in my kitchen kit. RULE 4: Don't die. That is the most important rule of primitive survival. No matter what you have or do not have, no matter the environment, learn to use any and all natural materials at hand and survive. Then take modern implements that are the hardest to reproduce, or the most time consuming or energy intensive to recreate, and which are the most useful, when you leave for the backcountry. These tools, cordage, and utensils should be made from strong modern materials... but don't abuse them. Personally I prefer Silky folding saws for cutting anything over 3", since they take less energy than chopping with an axe or a knife, and there is less chance of breaking your knife in the process. I also prefer a stout blade machete, say between 0.090" to 0.250" thick (like many Condor machetes, parangs, and goloks - these refer to the blade styles) and 12" to 18" long. My typical "field knife" is an old (long out of production) 12" Cold Steel spear point machete. I used to carry a Condor 15" Bolo machete on my pack, and it replaced 85% to 90% of what an axe would do for significantly less weight. Anything it could not easily do was covered by my 8 and 12-ish inch Silky folding saws; the 8" lived in my shoulder bag, and the 12+" in my backpack. They still do. Much of my adult life I have sold knives and survival equipment as a side business at gun & knife shows or online, and I sold knives, tomahawks, and various needs at Buckskinning Rendezvous (Mountain Man / Fur Trade Era Reenactments). I have thrown knives and axes (almost) since I was old enough to pick them up. The main brands I sold were Condor and Ontario, with many others as well. For my day job I was in various electrical engineering positions, usually in aerospace and military development. I know a bit about knives and the various steels and processes used to make them, and I know a bit about strength of materials. I will say again... beating a knife blade to force it through a piece of wood, especially harder woods, is abusing that blade. You deserve it if you push it beyond its intended stress range and break it. Take care of your knife, and it will take care of you.

Thanks for posting this demonstration since it is sometimes necessary to split wood with a knife. Many campgrounds sell small bundles of wood for campfires and splitting is often necessary to make kindling. For many years I used an Ontario Knives 499 for this task and had no problems but the 499 and SP-6 are a little different. According to specifications the 499 is made from 1095 steel hardended to between 50 and 55 Rc. The blade also has to flex through 9 degrees without damage. The blade of a model 499 is softer and springier than most modern knives. The SP-6 is listed as being made from 1075? (some sources indicate 1095) steel that is hardened to Rc 57-59 Rc. It is not clear if the steel is actual 1075 or 1095 or and "equivalent" made from recycled metal. It would be good to know if any affordable modern knife will stand up to batoning wood

The dog knew it was coming. It watched you the whole time, and at 3:12 it came to you .

Im rough on knifes , love your channel !

this is why im a bowie/kukri guy even if you get a cheap one you know its going to get the job done

contact Ontario for sure, even the sp10 bowie has a tang this narrow

bushcrafting is all over KZfaq. it seems all knives supposed to handle bushcrafting. This is a fighting knife, go fighting! go stabbing! thrust, turn, tear apart.

Yeesh! That’s disappointing. I own this knife and other OKC blades….that’s concerning; hopefully, it’s just a contained issue with quality?!?

dude this is one of joe x's recommend knives just wow

That's crazy, i believe Joe X put this knife through his torture tests and it did relatively well.

I was about to buy one too won’t be buying it anymore thanks for the review

I’d love to hear if OKC accepts the knife for replacement or refunds it

thats weird! mine did very good!!!

I hate to say it, but Ontario fighting knives have been known to break under baton duress. If a fighter is only good for fighting, that’s not gonna cut the mustard.

DUDE!! THat is crazyQ@!

Fighting knife duh

Possibility a an isolated case on that particular one, and that was a pretty hefty looking piece of knoted hard wood, maybe flaw in heat treat, personally I would not obstain from purchasing this knife as a defensive or fighter blade because of this incident, especially not being specifically designed for performing as a camp knife, I saw the rest of your demo on this one and it performed admirably... Good demo thou, showing that This is not a good choice for a woodsman camp knife, but great choice for defensive deployment!!!!

Moral of the story, pay a little more and buy a Ka-bar...

A knife should be able to do that. Even if you don't baton with it all the time it should be able to do it. Usually that's how I test the heat treatment of my knives when I first buy them.

Damn. That’s disappointing. That’s gotta be a fluke

All respect but that was a pretty hefty log for a knife

What???

Was it China made?

No excuse, all knives are tools AND weapons and should be able to put up more stress than it was designed for. People who disagree are either fools or dead.

I guess it was just meant to fight not chop

I have to assume it had a flaw at the tang intersection.

kraton handle is not protecting the tang, is rubber. Maybe wood or metal as handle material would help strengthening the tang

I smell a Rat

This is why batoning is bad. This can happen with all blades. In a survival situation nonsense like that could kill you.