Top 5 Survival Hacks With A Camping Knife

Vintage fieldcraft you can use today – from an old trailhand who still sharpens by campfire light.

By George “Gabby” Hayes

Introduction

If you give me one tool in the backcountry, I will take a stout fixed blade every time. A good camp knife is a pocket workshop. The old woodsmen knew this before there were fancy gadgets, and they passed down tricks that still work in the rain, the cold, and the dark. What follows are five vintage hacks you can use today with nothing more than your knife, some common sense, and a bit of practice.

Before we get into it, a word on safety. Keep your off hand out of the blade’s path. Cut away from your body. Work seated or kneeling when possible for stability. Use a stable chopping block, not your leg. And keep a small first aid kit in your pocket. Old timers carried a bandanna for pressure and a bit of tape. You should too.

Hack 1. One Stick Fire In Miserable Weather

Old trick from soaked camps at the edge of nowhere. When everything is wet, you can still make a fire using a single wrist-thick stick.

• Split to the dry: Baton a log into slats until you hit dry heartwood.
  
• Feather fine: Carve feather sticks with hair-thin curls.
  
• Build a pencil pyramid: Place feathers in the core, add pencil-sized sticks, and leave a door for airflow.
  
• Light and feed: Light the feathers, feed with matchstick, pencil, and finger-thick fuel.
  
• Trailhand tip: Scrape tinder dust with your knife spine and save bark as a rain shield.

Hack 2. The Kephart Pot Crane And Pothooks

Before tripods and gadgets, camp cooks used a simple wooden crane.

• Carve an upright stick and notch it to hold a crossbar.
  
• Carve the crossbar with a saddle notch and a 7-notch to hold pothooks.
  
• Whittle pothooks with a blunt peg, hook, and square notch.
  
• Adjust cooking height with different hooks or swing the pot off the heat.
  
• Trailhand tip: Practice notches at home – saddle, square, and 7.

Hack 3. Split Wood Tent Stakes And Deadman Anchors

Wind, snow, or sand will eat store-bought stakes. Your knife turns wood into hardware.

• Split wood stakes: Quarter a log, carve a chisel point, and notch the top.
  
• Drive smart: Use a baton, not your knife, and angle stakes 15° outward.
  
• Deadman anchors: Bury a short stake sideways with cord tied around the middle. Tamp soil tight.
  
• Trailhand tip: Rub soap or wax on stake tips for frozen ground.
  

Hack 4. Field Sharpening With Belt, Cardboard, And Ash

Sharp solves problems. Dull creates them.

• Belt strop: Flip your belt inside out and strop spine-leading at 15°.
  
• Cardboard & ash: Rub ash paste into cardboard for a makeshift strop.
  
• Stick stropping: A Smooth stick with toothpaste or polish works for convex grinds.
  
• Trailhand tip: Wipe your edge clean before stropping to avoid scratches.
  

Hack 5. The Toggle Trick – Fast, Tool-Free Connections

A handful of toggles turn one cord into a dozen camp fixes.

• Carve thumb-length toggles and round the edges.
  
• Use toggles to rig tarps without grommets.
  
• Hang the gear by looping the cord around a branch with a toggle.
  
• Lock lashings with a toggle for quick release.
  
• Trailhand tip: Carve a small shoulder on toggles so the cord doesn’t slip.

Backyard Drills

• Feather stick twenty curls.
  
• Carve a try stick with ten clean notches.
  
• Make four identical split-wood stakes.
  
• Light a one-stick fire and boil a mug of water.
  
• Rig a tarp with one line and toggles only.

Final Word From Gabby

A knife isn’t a hammer, a pry bar, or a can opener. Treat it like the trusted partner it is, and it will pay you back in quiet, simple ways. The old ways survive because they work. Learn them, keep them sharp, and pass them on.

See you by the fire.

About the Author

George “Gabby” Hayes (1885–1969) was one of America’s most beloved Western sidekicks – a bearded, wisecracking camp hand who always seemed to know how to wrangle trouble, start a fire, or get the cowboy crew out of a jam.

Though his roots were in film, his persona embodied the frontier spirit: practical, resourceful, and tough as rawhide. This guide carries that same voice forward – plainspoken camp tricks and vintage survival know-how that still work today.

Trail wisdom from an old camp hand.