>>1904258This is the way to go regardless. For $175 you could have a chopper, splitter, hatchet, and about $55 left over to play with. And thats being very liberal with pricing. Handles range between $10-20 respectively unless you're buying hand carved, and you can find great vintage axe heads as low as $5 if you look hard enough. You also have the option to start with a head that still has a lot of material left in the cheeks, and reprofile it to be a "tweener" if youre only interested in carrying one axe with you, instead of being stuck with the thin profile of the GB which is a great chopper, but poor splitter. Obviously this also allows you to choose what length handle best suits you. Personally I find that a 26"-28" handle with a head between 2 1/4-3lbs is perfect for camping purposes. It allows you to fell decently sized trees, has the leverage and weight to split and chop well depending on profile, allows you to choke up and split kindling/carve comfortably, and is still light and compact enough to not be overly cumbersome. GB makes great axes but putting a little time into a vintage head is the way to go in my opinion.
