A key bushcraft skill that has a wide range of uses, learning how to carve wooden items is a useful skill to have if you find yourself in a long-term survival situation. Carving wood is usually a fun hobby, and preppers can create everything from utensils to fully hollowed out canoes, but it is also a great way to hone your skills to create things you actually can use.

Wood carving for survival is also known as whittling, and this skill allows you to create wooden spoons to use for food preparation, cups and kuksas to drink out of or carry water in, or even large bowls to eat soup from, prepare food inside or use to take foraging.

You can also use your newfound wood carving skills to craft defensive weapons, creating replacement arrows for your bow, crafting a new handle for your axe or hammer, making a solid club to split wood or to defend yourself. You could even make an new handle for your catapult, carve specialised pieces of wood to be used in trapping, or a comb for your hair.

What’s more, if you have free time after you’ve taken care of your shelter, food and water supplies, then there are hundreds of objects and trinkets that you can begin to carve as a hobby. Make small animals, cups, jewellery, a whistle, or how about making some fun game items such as dice, a boomerang, or even a full chess set to improve your survival experience.

For many items you will only need a good knife, however for more intricate designs there are specialist whittling tools that you can use to scoop out pieces of wood, or make small detailing.

Take a look at the articles below to unlock your wood carving potential, and before long you will be able to craft everything from a useful featherstick to small trinkets and decorative items.