Nope, I am talking about the blade height, which determines how deeply you can drive the blade into wood before the spine is level with the wood surface. On a longer fixed blade, you can drive the knife right into the wood and continue batonning it on the tip. But with a folder you probably aren't going to have the blade length to do that, and even if you did, batonning on the tip of a folder will put huge wear on the lock.Evil D wrote:Are you confusing blade thickness from edge-to-spine width? I don't think a blade needs to be wide to withstand batonning...my Wildsteer is only 1 1/8 inches wide at the widest part of the blade, but it's also 3/16 thick for almost the entire length of the spine until the tip where there's a swedge. You would have to use something like a hammer to damage the spine of this blade.
If you baton just on the back of a folder (not on the tip) then most of the stress is transferred through the blade, without affecting the pivot and lock. A taller blade means you'll need fewer cuts if you're battoning across the grain, and can open up a larger split (which you can then drive a wedge into if necessary) when batonning with the grain.
Of course, a thicker blade, like that on the Lionspy, also helps.