How to Carve Tent Pegs from Dogwood — A Bushcraft Whittling Project

Learn how to select, split, and carve a set of tough, lightweight tent pegs from Common Dogwood that you'll actually use in the field.

One of the first carving crafts we teach when introducing knives to our students is how to carve a tent peg. Creating a useful tool from natural resources is a great way to instil an appreciation for bushcraft. But more often than not, these tent pegs go unused or end up as firewood.

Wood Selection — Common Dogwood

Although hazel is great, we want something a little harder and more impact-resistant, so we're going to use Common Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) for this task.

Common Dogwood can be identified by its opposite, oval leaves with curved veins, small clusters of white flowers, and — most noticeably — its striking red twigs in winter, which give it great ornamental colour. These are followed by black berries in autumn. Older stems develop smooth grey bark, and the plant thrives in damp areas and hedgerows.

Winter red twigs

Oval leaves with curved veins

White flower clusters

Black berries in autumn

Carving the Pegs — Step by Step

1 Select Your Stems

For our set, we're looking to make eight pegs, so we want older stems around 3–5cm (about an inch) in diameter.

Cut the straightest and most knot-free sections to about 20cm in length.

2 Baton into Quarters

Use a knife to baton the sections into quarters.

Splitting Tip

If you're worried the split may not run evenly, you can start the split at one end, repeat the process on the other end, and then gently work the splits toward each other so they meet cleanly.

3 Cut the V Notch

Cut a simple "V" notch about a thumb's thickness from one end — this will be the top. The notch should be deep enough to hold a paracord loop securely.

4 Chamfer the Top

Round off or chamfer the top so the peg doesn't fold over when it's hammered into hard ground. Using a controlled thumb push or a reinforced cut, carefully remove the sharp edges from the top of the peg.

5 Point the Peg

The simplest way is to cut each side to a tip — 3 sides = 3 cuts to form a nice strong point.

6 Remove Bark & Dry

Removing the bark from below the notch will help the pegs dry out faster.

The finished set — eight dogwood tent pegs ready for the field.