There are many items, such as tents and sleeping bags, that people always mention as the quintessential camping gear, and while they aren’t wrong, they usually neglect to mention the other gear that is equally as important to bring on your trip. While I can’t mention all of the items that you might benefit from by taking them with you, I can at least explain all the benefits of the sharp and pointy things that you can bring along, and their ability to make things shorter.
All kidding aside, bringing a few different types of edged tools along with you on your camping trip is always a good idea. However, before we get into the tools themselves, we should go over the items that should always accompany them, like the holsters or the knife sharpeners. The application of the knife sharpeners should be pretty obvious since their name is also their function, but their name neglects to mention how important they are. This small tool is essential to keeping your blades in top shape and making sure they cut right and don’t get chipped or damaged just from being used.
The other items, namely the holsters are also pretty self-explanatory and equally as underrated. These items can really increase your personal safety while using the knives as they provide you with a safe and easy way to store them and keep them close to hand when you aren’t using them. It’s also very unlikely that you will lose your knife or axe, or wonder if you’ve brought it with you if it’s strapped to your hip.
Moving on to the edged tools themselves, the best place to start off would probably be the axe. Depending on the exact role you will need them to fulfill, you can choose to get a short or long-handled axe. The long handled variety is your tool of choice for making firewood for your campfire but is a bit more difficult to bring along because of its size. The short-handled one, on the other hand, is much more convenient to carry around (especially if you have a holster) but you won’t be able to place as much force on it, and it will be more limited in what it can cut down.
Finally, we come to the knives and the question of which kind you should take with you on your trip. This is pretty difficult to answer simply because of the sheer variety of choices, but it’s made easier if you know what you will need to use them for. The hunting knives are great for cutting everything from carrots to meat and have an edge that can let you de-bark a tree without any trouble. The multi-tools are always handy to have around because of the great number of different uses they have. And the simple pocket knives are easy to carry and can be useful in all the same ways that a regular knife could be.
