I'm posting this question here as well as the Knives forum to get a bit more feedback...
After the last 5 years of wandering in the desert (literally!) I've settled into a new home here on the Gulf Coast and, not surprisingly, as I've been doing through and slowly organizing all my crap I've found a lot of stuff has gone missing or has become too old and broke down to fix (sorta like me...).
I was looking to split some mesquite logs the other day and couldn't find my old axe. It wasn't much of an axe, really, just a standard hardware store 2-1/2 pound head single-blade, but I'd worked the edge with files and stones to the point where it was serviceable. But it seems to have got lost.
So I wandered down to Lowe's and bought me a nice little hand-axe, which of course had nothing like an edge on it, worked it over with Dremel and file to get some sharp on it, and it served to split the softwood I have on hand, but doesn't hardly put a dent in mesquite. And since I have close to a cord of mesquite, I'm gonna have to fix this.
So... before I go spending good money on bad steel on the gaddom innanet, who among the cognoscenti here on the 'Fire has a recommendation for a true quality axe?
I'm looking for two: a packable hand-axe (aka hatchet) and a 3-pound single blade general purpose axe. The floor is open to comments.
