two questions, what is the largest diameter you would baton?
does it seem flat blades baton easier than saber ground blades?

2nd one yes 1st well do you feel comfortablee enouph to baton through the xinch diamiter tree ?

i was using my M6, recon scout and a wildlife hatchet yesterday. to my suprise the rs did much better than the m6. so i grabbed an rd9 and a forrester and they all worked better. obviously the longer blades had an advantage. one thing i disliked about the rs is the false edge. i really like the point on busse blades because there is no false edge. one problem is my ideal blade would be flat ground and spear point or at least not have a false edge. my only busse like that is the S6 the old RD9 is perfect for that. so i need an S7 to S9. the dfle would have been perfect for this. i finally gave up and split the rest with the hatchet. maybe i'll go back to using khuks and hatchets to split wood. they are so much faster but when i am out with the scouts it seems so much safer to make them baton.

It depends on the ratio of blade length to wood diameter. I like to have about an 1 1/2 inches protruding so I can be assured that I've got a big enough target.

Regarding flat vs Sabre ground. I think it depends on the blade thickness. Thinner blades baton better than fatter blades, at least that's been my experience.

jerry,
good point. i like a 7 inch blade. the 6 inch just seems to small. the blades i used were 1/4" to 5/16"

My personal blade, that knife which usually travels with me everywhere is a Mountaineer II. It use to be a RatManDu until Santa came around. The RMD and the Maountaineer II are approximately the same size. I find that they are a nice sized knife that will get me out of just about any situation. Best of all I'm willing to pack it along. I'm not always willing to take along one of my larger blades. And if I don't bring it then it's useless.

I have not done too much batoning. The desert does not really have many thick trees. The thickest wood I have batoned are in the 4-5 inch range. I typically use a machete for this purpose.

if i'm batoning through camp fire sized logs its gotta be an rd-9,df or khukri.

i like flat ground blades better

That's the problem with deserts and the high artic, not enough trees.

I have used a SAR RAT (4") blade and a Ratweiler (8") blade. I usually use the Ratweiler and have batoned at least 2 cords of wood. THe largest diameter is about 28". Not all at once, you have to shave it piece by piece but you can get through it. As for the grind, it depends on what your doing. I have never worked with a flat grind though.

that is pretty big

I am not a big fan of batoning, I prefer hatchets or folding saws for cutting through wood.