You can repurpose many humble plumbing fittings into wonderful ultralight hiking tools. Take this cheap 19mm (3/4″) irrigation tee from Bunnings for A$1.54 (June 2020) .
I have carried one to sit the sharp end of my hiking pole in so it doesn’t pierce the floor of my tent. An end joiner works well for that purpose too – and is lighter. You can set it up to start with using your cook pot, then switch after you have your tent pegs in.
They are also just excellent for driving a tent stake into hard ground without damaging the stake – or your hand! This one weighs 14 grams.
I’m sure I can devise a modification to it so it is just as useful for extracting the tent peg! Coming soon
Four can be also used to double-hang a pair of hammocks under a single tarp.
This ‘tool’ is particularly useful with the ultralight titanium ‘v’ stakes which give so much better purchase than the shepherd’s hook stakes but are so prone to bending (and well-night ruined once bent).
A ‘better’ alternative when more purchase is needed is the aluminium ‘J’ type stake as seen in the photo (available in Naturehike brand from about $1 each) These are very tough. I use them for the critical anchors of my shelters.
Not all pegs have the same stresses on them. I also back up many of my peg-down points with short horizontal guys (and a second peg). As all the force on the second peg is horizontal it helps the first peg resist the vertical force on it.
The fitting can be further lightened (by about a third (to under 10 grams) by cutting off some of the two horizontal barbs and judiciously such drilling holes as won’t affect its strength.
See Also:
Another Plumbing idea:
