There are so many choices. Different lengths, different heads, different styles and weights. I am mostly looking for an overall forest tool; good quality, lasts forever, easy to strap to the pack sort of thing.
Suggestions?

Snow and Nealley Kindling Axe

Nice axe, convenient intermediate size, great quality.

Tom A.

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

Check wisementrading.com and look at their Wetterlings hatchets and axes. I bought the two littlest ones. Less than $30 each and on par with GB's without the finer finishing. I bought them to try and realized I don't want to carry them in the field but put one each in our vehicles. I prefer a small pruning saw and my Fallkniven F1 for the types of tasks common for me. Lighter, cheaper, and safer.

Depending on your needs, give some thought to the BAHCO 396 LAP. I keep one snapped to a ring on my belt and stuffed into a BDU pocket.

It is hard to recommend an ax without more specific detail as to your intended use. The smaller Gransfors Bruks like the Wildlife (shown below) is a fine choice for small fire building etc use.



The next sizes up, Small Forest Ax, Hunter's Ax or Scandinavian Forest Ax, is a better choice for more intense ax work.

Gransfors are worth their extra cost in my view....particularly if you can select the helve.

Wetterlings are much less expensive and not too bad a choice, but they do require some work to get them in ready-to-go shape.



Wetterlings Falling and GB Scandinavian Forest Ax.

Another fan here of the Gerber. I have the sport axe myself. At just over 14" and around 2lbs it is hard to beat from a carry stand point. If it's to big and heavy that you don't want to tugg it along, why bother. They sharpen up nice too, my thumb found that out while putting it back in the sheath one day.

As soon as I find 'bout $100 I don't know what to do with, I will have a Gransfors Bruks Small Forest Axe. To me it seems to be just about the right size/weight for anything other than felling trees or splitting large rounds...

an axe is a hard tool to master..all the ones suggested above
are of the best quality and could last years..BUT--unless you
have a source of standing trees to work with for practice you
could end up with something like this..



every so often i find that the Jr Woodchucks have had a go at
a snag in a camp site and get about this far before they find
that it involves a lot of work and skill to bring down a tree
with an axe..even splitting calls for a good eye and the right
kind of axe....there are some websites devoted to just this
subject--good luck--watch your toes

Yeah, a lot depends on what you want to do.

For splitting wood I find a maul does the best - whether full length or a smaller short-handled one. I found a great one fiberglass handled one at my local Ace Hardware.

For cutting logs that can't be broken by hand I find a saw cuts much faster & easier.

About the only thing I use an axe/hatchet for is to remove small limbs from branches.

Other than that my knife does the trick.