In my mind it's really worth trying smaller knives with a baton, instead of chopping. My EDC has a four inch blade and a handle-heavy balance, and while it CAN chop by using a (rather tiring) two fingered grip on the butt end, I don't bother unless it's a small piece of wood.

Batoning does take a little more time, but it's also more accurate, safer, takes less effort. You can take a surprisingly large limb apart by batoning out large chips all the way around, and then break whatever is left against a rock or in a forked tree or something.