50 Bushcraft Tips You Actually Need in the Field

Bushcraft isn’t about pretty shelters and staged ferro-rod showers. It’s about what still works when it’s wet, windy, and you’re cold and hungry. These are the techniques I actually use. Practice them in lousy weather, not just on bluebird weekends.

Fire

1. Storm-Pitch Notch
   Cut a shallow notch in a short log and face it away from the wind. Stuff tinder inside and build kindling up its face. The notch traps heat, the log shields gusts, and the whole piece eventually becomes fuel.
2. Three Feather Sticks, Three Jobs
   Make one with thin curls for ignition, one with medium curls for bridging, and one sloppy for shavings and dust. The dust lights, the thin catches, the medium sustains.
3. Ride the Ridge
   When carving feathers, rotate the stick a few degrees each pass and ride the ridge your last cut created. Cleaner curls, fewer dig-ins.
4. Double the Kindling
   Whatever bundle you think is “plenty,” double it. Fires die because people run out of pencil-lead sticks during the first 60 seconds.
5. Pencil, Not Thumb
   Early fuel should be pencil-thin. Finger-thick sticks are for when you have a real flame, not a newborn.
6. Redundant Ignition
   Carry a ferro rod, a lighter, and storm matches. If one fails, you don’t negotiate—you light.
7. Brace and Pull
   For ferro rods, lock your knife spine against a boot or log and pull the rod toward you. Sparks drop in place without blasting your tinder apart.
8. Core the Wet Stuff
   Split damp branches to expose the dry heartwood. Feather and feed the core; bark stays out of the first burns.
9. Twig “Sharpener”
   A small pencil sharpener spits out perfect dry slivers from twigs and conifer sticks. It’s shockingly effective in rain.
10. Duff Platform
    On snow or soaked ground, lay a platform of thumb-thick sticks, then build your fire on that dry raft so it doesn’t drown from below.
11. Birch Bark, Not Live Trees
    Dead, curling birch bark is resin-rich tinder. Don’t peel living trees—there’s enough loose bark on deadfall.
12. Grease the Skids
    A smear of waxed jute or petroleum-jelly cotton under your curls buys you extra ignition time in wind.
13. Use a Wind Roof
    Cup a leather glove like a little roof over the tinder and spark under the edge. Three seconds of calm air often decides it.
14. Resin Splinters
    Knock thumb-length resinous slivers from fatwood or sappy knots and feed them like matches. Hot, dirty, reliable.

Shelter

15. Let Deadfall Work for You
    A hung-up log is a ready-made ridge pole. Lash uprights, lay boughs or debris, and you’re under cover fast.
16. Lean-To vs A-Frame
    Lean-to is fast and open; A-frame takes double the material but wins in wind. If a front is coming, build the A-frame.
17. Site Before Build
    Look up. Widowmakers, leaners, rotten trunks—move 50 feet now or regret it at 2 a.m.
18. Insulate the Ground
    A 4–6 inch debris mattress stops conductive heat loss. No pad? Build the mattress. Your back will thank you.
19. Reflector, Not Bonfire
    A knee-high green-stick reflector a couple feet behind your fire bounces heat without becoming a second blaze. Keep the fire small and controllable.
20. One Ridgeline, Two Knots
    Trucker’s hitch at one tree, taut-line hitch at the other. Fast setup, fast adjustment when wind shifts.
21. Face the Door Leeward
    Pitch the opening away from the prevailing wind. You’ll trap heat and smoke less.
22. Trash-Bag Insurance
    A heavy contractor bag becomes a vapor-barrier bivy, an emergency poncho, or a water collector. It weighs nothing—carry one.

Tools & Edges

23. Never Break the Vertical Plane
    Swing hatchets toward a stump, log, or the ground—never across your legs. If you miss, you want dirt, not tendon.
24. Wedge the Big Stuff
    With only a small knife, score a split line on the log, drive in a wooden wedge you’ve carved, and hammer it through with a baton or mallet. Saves your folder and your fingers.
25. Oil and Strop
    Wipe blades and wood with boiled linseed oil after trips. Strop lightly and often. If you’re “sharpening” every outing, you waited too long.
26. 90-Degree Spine
    A square knife spine showers sparks. If yours is rounded, carry a dedicated scraper.
27. Wire Saw Without the Hurt
    Anchor the wire around a sapling at hip height and rock your arms side-to-side. Horizontal stroke keeps the kerf open and your shoulders sane.
28. Saw + Axe, Not Either/Or
    Saw bucking is safer and cleaner. Axe for felling, splitting, and shaping. Together they move wood faster and with fewer injuries.
29. Pack Cordage on the Pack
    Cobra-weave paracord onto your shoulder straps. It rides out of the way but is there when you need ten feet, right now.
30. Field Mallet from a Crotch
    A natural fork makes a brutal mallet head. Clean the handle, bevel the striking face slightly to prevent mushrooming, swing away.
31. Two-Ended Tool
    Carve the opposite end of that mallet into a broad “spade” and you’ve got a crude mattock for trenching or root work.

Water & Food

32. Pre-Filter Everything
    Let silty water settle, then pour through a bandana or coffee filter before you boil or treat. Your tabs and gut will last longer.
33. Boil Times Aren’t Gospel
    A rolling boil kills bugs fast at sea level, but at altitude water boils cooler—give it a little extra.
34. One-Liter Standard
    Carry a collapsible one-liter bag. It matches tablet dosing perfectly and rolls to nothing.
35. Condom + Sock Bottle
    In a pinch, fill a condom, nest it in a sock for support, and you’ve got a fragile but functional water cache. Treat it before you drink.
36. Birds Lead to Water
    Low, fast, straight bird traffic at dawn and dusk often points to water. It’s not a guarantee—just a clue to check.
37. Micro Fishing Kit
    A few hooks, line, and split shot ride in a mint tin. Legal, ethical, and last resort—practice elsewhere before you ever need it.
38. Eat Conservatively
    If you can’t positively ID it, don’t eat it. Mushrooms aren’t a “try it and see” category.

Navigation & Weather

39. Compass Before Phone
    A baseplate compass doesn’t die at 6%. Keep it away from magnetized knife sheaths and steel stoves.
40. Pace Beads for Reality
    Measure your 100-meter pace on flat and rough ground and use beads to count distance. Your “I think it’s close” isn’t data.
41. Read the Sky
    Lowering ceiling, fresh smell of rain, leaves flashing their pale sides, and distant sound carrying further are classic storm tells. Adjust camp early.
42. Mark Camp Before Wandering
    Flag once or pick natural markers before you “just scout.” Most folks get lost 200 yards from camp.
43. Red Mode, Spare Cells
    Headlamp with red saves night vision. Spare batteries live in a zip bag inside your beanie so they stay warm and actually work.
44. Layer to Stay Dry
    Vent early, swap into dry sleep socks, and don’t sweat through your insulation. Wet and wind is how nights go sideways.

Campcraft & Safety

45. Manage Food Smell
    In bear country, hang food high and far or use a canister. Elsewhere, just keep all scented stuff out of the shelter. Critters don’t care it’s “only toothpaste.”
46. Dig Smart
    Catholes 6–8 inches deep, 200 feet from water, trail, and camp. Pack out paper if regulations require it.
47. Bleeding Control
    A pressure bandage and strong tape handle most field lacerations. You don’t need a trauma ward—just fast, focused pressure that stays put.
48. Don’t Light Peat
    On duff, peat, or pine-needle mats, build on mineral soil or a raised platform. Fires travel underground. Drown, stir, and feel cold before you walk.
49. Micro Survival Tin, Not a Toy
    Keep it small and sensible: light, whistle, blade, tinder, tabs, a few meds. If it won’t earn its slot, it doesn’t ride.
50. Practice in Bad Weather
    Skills you’ve only done on dry ground at noon will fail you at midnight in rain. Train for the worst on purpose.

Final Word

This isn’t theory. It’s the short list I lean on when things turn sour. Pick five and drill them until they’re boring. Then add five more. That’s how you build real field competence.

If you want to go deeper, read my Survival Axe Guide and my Best Folding Saws for Camping and Backpacking—the right edge tools plus a reliable fire system cover most backcountry problems.