>>2465523I've seen the saw method a few times, I'll have to try it.
One interesting thing is that the whole batoning and "heavy duty" thing is changing the geometry of hunting/bushcraft knives, I believe.
Say recently I got this very nice knife that's pretty much designed for heavy use "bushcraft" stuff. It's thick, full-tang, all that jazz. It's a really capable knife and I'm sure it can handle some real abuse, it's nice that it's so robust, but then I handle my thinner, 3/4 tang knife, which dates from way back before youtube and batonny chop chop, thinner with a scandi zero grind. I'm not sure if that that knife would chip or break if I tried batoning with it, but it beats the other for carving and cutting jobs hands down. It really bites into the wood like it's butter.
I haven't sharpened the other yet, so I'm sure that I can get it a little extra sharp with a pass on the fine stone and a strop, but it's really a matter of geometry I think. Thick knife with a grind made to withstand abusive shit just won't cut as nicely as a thinner knife with a zero grind. And if you look at recent bushcraft knives they're getting thicker and thicker. It's inevitable that when you get a knife that's designed for this kind of heavy beating you're sacrificing something on the cutting side. In a while we're going to end up with wedges that look like axes lol. Then I see the youtubers slice paper to show the knife is sharp... They take the knife and make a slicing motion, that's such a worthless test. I can do this with any dull knife. Try push cutting straight down and 99% of those knives will fail.