he said that the mora cant handle lateral stress and can brake batoning through knots.

that is why i dont use a mora and i use a DFLE or similar size,maybe bigger,FFFBM.

people say if i need to chop wood i'll use a hatchet.me to if it works best.

it is so much easier to split a log by batoning with a large fixed blade than to use a hatchet while in the woods.it is also safer.

some people are just old school and havnt caught up to current technological advences and materieals.

he also kept refering to people using a thick blade to do delicate tasks.i use a thin,delicate knife for delicate tasks and a big,heavy duty blade for big,heavy duty work.

i think people 100 years ago would have loved some 1/4in-3/8in INFI and found it very usefull.

she we not use cars or computers and the internet because the indians didnt.

Yeah, well like unsub said, I giess if you are cutting something kinda thin it would be fine to just have a sharp edge.
but for most things it's not just the edge but the whole grind. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
thats where a good knife is made.
for chopping it especially matters.
A good knife needs to be ground righ from the spine to the edge or no matter how nice an edge you have (even a high convex edge) it won't chop that great.
it's just how it is.

you could even go as simple as the type of grind, not just the way it's ground.
my thin kershaw scallion has a great edge on it and it's extremely thin, However it has a hollow grind, when cutting cardboard it binds and my YKCG will outcut it.
thats just one example right their.
Ask mike Stewart what he thinks on the subject and he'll probably give you a better explained answer than me.
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

EDIT: granted a knife with a great grind is not much without a decent edge, but with a good grind, you throw an edge on it and it will cut very well, BUT a knife with a bad grind will not cut even with a good edge.
(this is all kind of from personnal experience and what I've heard [from some very good knifemakers mind you] so it can be questioned, I don't want to sound like I am TELLING you whats right, but thats how I see it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />)

I like hollow grinds for some things. My Buck 119 is a wicked design with a thick back and a thin edge and a deep hollow grind. It is a brilliant design because you have a thick strong back that can pry and a thin sharp edge. A good hollow edge is the sharpest type. Like Northern I like a thin delicate scalpel for fine work and a big DFLE type bowie for the heavy stuff.

I have been searching for the perfect companion knife for delicate work with my DFLE and have tried dozens of knives but am still not sure although the HC and SS4 are the contenders so far.
I had the SH-E for less than a week and it has a nylon sheath like the DF's with the pouch and I picked up the first thing that would fit and stuffd it in.
It was my Lambert Whar custom Folder and it was the perfect companion for the SH-E. It is way to modern and flashy for the DFLE but perfect for the SH-E especially if it is dolled up a bit. It is a fair bit of expensive steel ,titanium ,carbon fibre and micarta to have in a 10$ nylon sheath though. For some reason the sheath is perfect as well.

The Whar is straight edged and hollow ground S30V folder.
Here it is cuddled up to the HairyCarry.


I was planning to polish the SH-E as finely as possible but now I think I will try to match the Lamberts 2 tone satin bevel polished flats finish.

I am a terrible photographer but I thought this photo of the SH-E contrasted by the FS Dagger was not bad.


This setup would do everything well I think. I took the SH-E out to the back yard to chop some brush and even whcked the steel against some cement while cutting down weeds and the SH-E handled it great. A tiny touch up to the edge and it was like it never happened. It has an asymmetrical edge like an Emerson
which was in rough shape but came right back. It is also a lot like the Hudson bay knife and could be used as a draw knife while the Whar can actually be used as a straight razor.

Boy, I should have joined this discussion.

When we are discussing traditional wilderness uses of blades, batoning is no newcomer. Any American farm, from Jonestown through the Cumberland Gap and across the Mississippi, depended on the froe. A froe is a tool specifically made for splitting wood. Light froes were straight, and were used exactly as we use a Dogfather for batoning. Heavier froes had handles; picture a short axe with a long light axe blade which is sharpened on the bottom edge. Froes were used to split shake shingles to roof a cabin. Or to split timber which could be adzed to shape for planks, or barrel staves, or horse collars, or siding for a building, or nearly anything. Longer pieces to be split were held horizontally in a frame called a riving break. Then the froe’s blade was hammered into the wood, just as you do when batoning. Pulling the right-angled handle make splitting the lumber go faster. The froe is one of those basic tools that you just could not do without, staking your claim in the wilderness.

This is only a quick sketch of the uses of the froe. But they were uses that Daniel Boon or Simon Kenton or any farm-raised wilderness explorer knew well. When they traveled light and fast I doubt that they carried froes with them, any more than they carried plowshares. But improvising a froe with their belt knives would have come naturally to them. In other words, batoning.

It's actually a balance of overall geometry, balanced combination of thickness, width, grind and edge.

As part of the balancing process you have to take into consideration the tools use. one example would be hollow grinds, this grind is a poor choice (under most conditions) for choppers do to the lack of material supporting the edge. They have a tendency to chip or crack.

They also don't work well on narrow thick blades do to the abruptness of angle change from edge to spine. Of coarse no grind really works well in this situation.


Some designs just won't cut well.






Here is a picture of a froe and maul for anyone who is not sure of what it is.

Until the advent of machines this is how all ceder shakes were split.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> Who made this thing? I would hate for my hand to slip down the handle and into the edge. I'd also be worried about that thin tanto tip breaking. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I have no idea who made it something I ran across on another forum.

Yep....the hand sliding forward (especially a sweaty one) might be of concern..... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />

You noticed that wimpy tanto point also. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I saw that thread on that other forum as well, and had the exact same opinion!

It's definitely cool looking, never seen anything like that before.

The only style of knife that is similar to that, that I actually like is the Munroe Designed D-rail or Guard Rail, as they call it. It's actually useful. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

It looks 3-D.