Thanks for the responses and help. All of your posts helped me decide what to do: I've found a couple dealers of Gransfors Bruks (GB) that are a couple hours away and stock the hatchets I'm interested in, so I'm making progress on those...not so much on the Wetterlings. I would have to order a Wetterlings sight-unseen and return it if I didn't like it, and I just don't want to do that. Probably, like Mannlicher implied, I'd be happy with a Wetterlings, but I just want to see one first and compare it to the GB for myself.
I called the GB headquarters in South Carolina and the nice lady told me the same fellow owns GB and Wetterlings. He is in the process of upgrading the quality and status of Wetterlings; so taking that for what it's worth, I think I'll go with a Gransfors Bruks at this point in time.
Odd thing about the two smallest GB hatchets is that the smallest one is almost half again more money than the next size up...must be a "cuteness" factor. Pretty spendy stuff but it's like anything else --- whichever one I like best is always more money.
