I'm a big fan of Gerber or Fiskars axes (they're pretty much the same company these days)

You can get several different pack sized axes with either a narrow head or a wider splitting head. The smallest in the Fiskars line is the 8" hatchet and range up to big splitting mauls 28" long. The smallest splitting axe is only 17" long...pretty compact.

All have lightweight but super strong hollow handles and come straight from the factory with a good edge on them. A friend of mine has the 28" super splitting axe and can turn a whole log into a pile of pencil thick kindling in no time with just the one axe.

I'm not a big fan of axes for backpacking due to the injury risks but for car camping I don't think I'll ever buy a different brand.

http://www.fiskars.com/webapp/wcs/stores...ategoryId=10277