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.