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Batoning and feather sticks

Splitting small wood with a knife and a stick, and carving curls that catch a flame when everything else is wet.

What you need

How

  1. Batoning: stand the piece of wood on end on the log, not on the ground.
  2. Set the knife edge across the top, with a hand width of blade sticking out past the far side.
  3. Strike the spine of the knife with the baton, close to the handle, until the blade is in.
  4. Now strike the part of the blade that sticks out past the wood, driving it down until the piece splits.
  5. Split the halves again. The dry wood is in the middle.
  6. Feather stick: take a dry split piece with no knots, about thumb thick.
  7. Hold it with the end on the log, angled away from you. Lock your knife wrist and push the blade down along the wood with your body, taking a long, thin curl.
  8. Stop the cut before the curl comes off, and start the next one beside it.
  9. Make a tight bunch of curls at the bottom of the stick. Light those.

Do and don't

Do
  • Keep your free hand behind the blade, and your legs out of the line of the cut.
  • Cut thin. Paper thin curls light, thick ones do not.
  • Carve a few feather sticks before you strike a match.
Don't
  • Do not baton through knots. Split around them.
  • Do not baton with a folding knife.
  • Do not hit the handle or twist the blade to pry the wood apart.

Watch for

Danger
  • A blade that slips off the end of a split swings toward your legs. Kneel or keep them wide.
  • Batoning big wood breaks knives. Use an axe for anything thicker than your wrist. See Axe and saw work.

Notes

A good bunch of feather curls and a few thin splits will light on one match in the rain. See One match fire.

The flat Scandinavian grind on a cheap bush knife carves feather sticks better than most expensive blades.

batonfeather stickknifekindling

Updated 2026-09-22

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