>>1646709I have a roselli axe. It's a bit different so I thought I'd rather say what aspects I liked and disliked in the end. It has a very wide blade angle. Splits wood well but will not easily lodge in wood like when you want to leave it in a log when you're done chopping. bearded blade is really nice if you want to do any fine carving. lots of control from that. handle is birch I think, which is soft. never broke and seems to absorb impacts well and is also a little fatter than most handles. blade is amazing carbon steel. holds good edge, but a bit of an effort to sharpen.
I might buy a more traditional axe these days. maybe gransfors small forest or hunters axe. having the medium length will help a lot on chopping wood. a hatchet is pretty weak for that. 18" is probably the smallest I would ever go for a handle. for a cheaper option I like some of garant's axes, although the edge needs to be cleaned up a lot to be effective. I think they have a 21" hatchet that would probably be pretty decent. The head is 1.5lb but i think the length more or less balances things out for chopping
