This is a topic I've been mulling over a lot lately and I've come to a firm conclusion...it depends!

Now I've never tried the Kukri but my normal light weight hacking implement of choice is the Gerber Brush Machete...IMO similar to the Kukri. It's a bit different than the Kukri shapewise and not as beefy but it's served me well. One frustration I've had is when i go camping or hiking in areas like national parks where wood is available for fires pre-cut and ready to go...if you can split it. This wood can be wet, knotty, or otherwise horrible. It can be super hard to split this wood with a machete...the blade is so thin that you have to slice through and don't actually split anything. I also carry a Gerber Gator folding saw but I don't like the fact that I can't sharpen it in the field and I've bent 2 blades already this winter. The blades are only 5 bucks but I barely get 2 trips out of them before something happens.

Despite my thoughts about the dangers of axes and hatchets, I've ordered the Snow & Nealley gift set from Cabela's (and it shipped the day before yesterday...yay!). An 18 inch 'kindling' axe (basically their standard Hudson by axe head in an 18" handle suitably shaped for one hand use) and a one hand splitting maul (same 18" handle but with a beefcake 3lb. splitting maul head). I'm hoping that with this trifecta I can cover all the angles. The maul will cover the big splitting jobs (also great for car camping with the wife) but still be short enough to pack in and the axe will be middle ground when I need something lighter than the maul, still a decent splitter, AND a proper chopper that will out chop the machete. Plus I'll still have the light weight standby, the machete, for back country stuff where the most cutting I'll need to do is to break up some already dead , scrounged wood for a fire.

Ultimately I've decided that there is no perfect tool for these tasks. Each has it's strong points...and weaknesses. Time will tell if I've made the right choice because the only way to be completely sure is to use them all and make your own comparison. The trick is selecting the right tool when you leave the house because you can rarely take all of them (Lord knows I've tried)...though you can put all of them in the trunk and decide later