I used to work for Brooklyn Brewing Co. Killer beer!

From personal experience, I find that an axe chops the best, followed by the Kukri (or khukuri), followed by the hatchet. In threads like this, people often start interchangeably using hatchet and axe, when those 2 are worlds apart.

I prefer the khukuri or a large knife over a hatchet. They are quite useful for many tasks, while the hatchet I find to be more limiting. YMMV.

Of course, a nice saw works well too...

Oh, that Brooklyn stuff! I ordered a pint when I was in Manhattan a while back, expecting it to give me a bit of the Brooklyn experience. It did, but not at all the way I thought.

Down in Brisbane last year, I got wrapped around a pint of Toohey's old. Now my buddy and I considered ourselves seasoned drinkers, but I gotta tell ya, after downing that pint (and it was a damn smooth good dark ale too), I was having trouble feeling my face, and my pal indicated he might not be able to get up off his stool for a bit.

Needless to say, I am rather impressed with some of the Aussie drink, though as I discovered there, no one but the poor drinks Fosters there anymore. It is definitely not Aussie for beer. There too, they are pretty fanatical about their regional brews. If you're from Queensland, you drink Four X gold.

You are incorrect.

A hatchet is an axe.

"a small, short-handled ax having the end of the head opposite the blade in the form of a hammer, made to be used with one hand." source


"Hatchet from the French hachette a diminutive form of the word hache, French for axe." source


Furthermore, I know many men who split rounds using a short handle, err a "hatchet". It affords them the ability to sit and split.

A short handled axe requires more input force from the user to have the same mechanical advantage that a long handle provides using a lot less force, but the axe head always retains its efficiency. In other words... a long handled axe chops just as well as a small handled axe, The only difference is the amount of energy needed.

So when I see your statements I know without a doubt ....

Anyways, from my personal experience, I find that an axe chops better than a kuhkri regardless of the handle length.


-JRJ

I would never sit and split wood. I know of at least two occations involving people I know doing this causing serious knee injury where the hatchet glanced and chopped them square under the knee cap.

Always been a hatchet man but got a heck of a deal on a big Kershaw D2 bush knife last night so I'll give the "big knife over axe" mentality a fair shake and try out the D2 on my camping trip to Arizona at the end of the month. I'll also give a report on how well the D2 compared to a machette. I'll post some pics in the start of the month about it.

No opinion here regarding which is best. But FWIW I'll pass along a warning: I carry a pretty good Kukri attached to my pack and use it freely to cut and to split wrist sized branches for the fire. But mostly use it while walking, to clear wrist sized limbs and saplings from our trails. To cut with it one typically "whips" it... with some wrist action different than a hatchet.
The thing is, my Kukri will often go through the limb with one clean slice when I was expecting to have to chop a few times. It exits the wood with a velocity and in an arc and angle much different than what I experience with a hatchet. So a safe stance with a Kukri is different than a safe stance with a hatchet. Not better. Not worse. Just different. Some practice (with MY limbs safely behind something impenetrable)is necessary. But...YMMV.

Sorry man, I pounced a bit on you and should have just addressed the points.



-JRJ