The way I usually qualify things is that there is a continuum to how you baton. You start the split and you can usually feel when there is too much resistance to proceed. You don't have to finish a baton if you feel it is adding to much stress. If I were in a survival situation, I wouldn't hesitate to baton. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't use common sense while performing this activity or really on my personal experience with the knife I'm using.


One reason I baton often with my knives is so that I get to know how they perform so I know how they will perform when I call upon them. Better to have a blade snap in my backyard than at camp. If it happened in the wilderness, I'd probably have to go to the trouble of reaching using my weak side hand to draw on my secondary belt knife