>>1845711>Falling for all the memesFirst of, Gransfors sucks. Their handles are too short to use the axes safely, and from what I hear from aquaintances that fell for them, their temper isn't exactly the best either.
Now, for what axe you should get:
For splitting, any cheap hardwarestore axe will do. Never a double bit though - sooner or later, it'll get stuck. Usually on every single piece of wood that has at least one knot in it. In that case, you want to turn the axe around and smack the back into something hard. Can't do that with a double bit.
In fact, a maul would be even better for splitting, but to heavy to carry comfortably.
For felling, the axe matters. Double bits are clearly superior here, as they are better balanced, and do not turn during the swing like singlebits tend to do. As turning and glancing is the main risk of injury, that's a major advantage.
Only reason to get a single bit for felling is if you just need the axe to remove branches and drive in wedges, while doing the actual felling with a saw.
>I just dont have the tools to re-profile an edge to that degreeIn that case, forget getting any axe. Sooner or later, they all need to be reground, and most manufacturers (including most expensive ones) ship semi-blunt. Unless you have at least an angle grinder (and a bucket of water for cooling) and a coarse file, you're not going to have any fun.
>35” which will be a better fit for my 6’ frameThat's still way to short. For comparison, I'm 178cm, and use a 90cm felling axe, since that's the longest axe I could find. Still short enough that it could hit my toes on a glance, so I have to wear steeltoes (which you probably should do anyways, I guess).
At 6ft, a glancing blow with a 35in axe may just split your shin. That's a serious injury, but unless you're out alone, you'll survive and heal up. With 32 in, it can hit your knee and leave you a cripple. Don't risk just to save 50$.
