If owning just one I'd say the small forest axe is it. Small enough to carry and will still do big work if you need it. I also have the Scandinavian forest axe and probably use it more around the house, but the small forest is the best do it all in my opinion. I know Dan Adair and EdT have a newer model that is like a hatchet with a metal handle guard. Don't know the name but it would be worth a look to.
Brad and Ed are spot on the money... The Small Forest is a bad ass all arounder, and I carry mine a lot. Especially when I bowhunt in The Burns, standing dead Lodgepole is about all you're going to find to make fire of any kind there and the SF's ability to split that better than a true hatchet is why it goes along. Plus, on longer trips I take it just for use around camp. You give me an axe, rope (or 550 cord), and whiskey and I can build anything you can imagine with an axe.
It's hard to find much cataloged about the new "Outdoors Axe" that GB is making, but it's light years better than any hatchet on the market (including their other 3) The handle is just enough longer that it "can do some damage" as EdT puts it.
Anyhow, digging through my archives on Photobucket, I found this pic of EdT's axes brother. From our Fireworks thread a while back.
![[Linked Image]](http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL152/10882229/20647066/405494077.jpg)
GB's are addictive. I'm up to 3 of them, and already eyeballing a splitting maul
The Husky Hultafors Brux axes are a good value. I'll admit it. They too are forged and can be nice and sharp. They make 3. The Carpenters Axe (which sees tons of use with local loggers) The Multi Purpose Axe, which is pretty much a GB Scandanavian Forest axe and a great "truck axe" Then they have the Hatchet, which is a pound and a quarter and has a 15" handle, it's also the most ill handling blocky piece of [bleep] they catalog. The Husky axes are a good value, but they don't feel near as good in the hands as the GBs, not even close. The most handy in the group is the Carpenters axe, and I keep one in the truck. It's a pig at 2.2 Lbs, but you can do lots of cool [bleep] with it and a pile of driftwood when the flyfishing sucks.
