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...