6 articles
Shelters, fire, knots, tools and navigation without GPS: the skills of outdoor living, with the rules that come with them.
Bushcraft is the art of feeling at home outdoors with very little: putting up a shelter, building a fire where it’s allowed, tracking down water, and finding your way back. It’s built on practice and patience far more than on pricey gear. Survival skills are the same toolbox, put to work when a trip doesn’t go as planned. You won’t find doomsday scenarios or tough-guy talk here, just practical skills explained simply, along with the regulations behind them.
This section covers how to pitch a tarp or build a shelter without damaging the woods, and how to tie a knot that holds but still comes undone when you want it to. It also covers choosing, sharpening, and safely handling a knife or a saw, and finding your way with a map, a compass, or the sun. Water gets special attention: where to look for it, how to treat it, and what filter standards actually guarantee. Then there’s signaling for help, reading animal tracks and sign, and packing a backpack or a small survival kit.
Every skill comes with its rules, and we quote them from official sources, with the date we checked them. You can’t build a fire just anywhere or anytime: fire restrictions, permits where they’re required, the landowner’s permission on private land, and alternatives for when it’s smarter to skip the flames. Knife laws vary from state to state, and sometimes from one city to the next, so we explain what they say about carrying and transporting a blade, with a callout for each state or agency when it matters. Every article in this section is reviewed by our editor before it’s published and spells out the risks clearly.
Risky techniques aren’t something you learn from an article, so when it matters we point you to a class or a club. Numbers like a filter’s flow rate or a blade’s length are explained and tied to their source, and gear is compared on the specs its manufacturers publish. This section is for curious beginners planning their first night in the woods, for regular practitioners sharpening their skills, and even for knife collectors, who might find the legal fine print a sobering read.
BushcraftHow-to guide
To set up a tarp and run a camp, six knots are all you need: the bowline, the taut-line hitch, the clove hitch, two half hitches, the timber hitch, and the square lashing. Here’s how to tie each one, what it’s for, the common mistake, and how to untie it, with a sheet to print. These are camp knots: none of them is for belaying anyone, yourself included.
Guillaume Hoarau··15 min
A-frame, lean-to, diamond, or closed: which tarp setup to use in wind and rain, with or without trees, and what keeps it taut all night long.
Guillaume Hoarau··17 min
Take a bearing from the map, follow it in fog, and correct for declination: the method step by step, with today’s values from Maine to Washington.
Guillaume Hoarau··8 min
911, 112, text-to-911, apps, satellite SOS, beacons: what works to call for help with little or no cell service, in the US and abroad.
Guillaume Hoarau··10 min
Campfires in France: banned within 656 ft (200 m) of woods unless you own the land, plus seasonal bans, fire danger maps, and Leave No Trace where allowed.
Guillaume Hoarau··6 min
Boil, filter, disinfect, or use UV: what each method really removes, according to the CDC and the WHO, and how to pick where you get your water.
Guillaume Hoarau··9 min
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