Axe beginner: good outdoor hiking axe (brand & model) please?

[Bushleague270]

In my experience you don't need a hatchet for most backpacking / camping & many places look down on harvesting firewood. Maybe your circumstances are different.
I do recommend having a good hatchet, ( or a dozen).
Council tools are very good, Estwing, Vaughan also. Another good option is finding a older American hatchet and giving it a little maintenance.
Maintenance you should know how to do anyway to keep whatever you get in top condition.
Finally I recommend the Fiskers x7 as maybe the best lightweight,low maintenance tool .

You've got to spend a lot of money to beat the x7 by any meaningfull amount IMO, I pack mine in the bush all winter. On occasions when I've packed a can of beans for lunch and forgotten my spoon, I've carved makeshift spoons using the x7 for almost the whole process, only using my knife to do the bowl. Its bucking and splitting capabilities are well covered, and it hardly needs my endorsement on that front.

One thing I will say, despite the hype I really do not care for small axes AT ALL. I like a hatchet just fine, I like a boys axe just fine, and I sure like my vintage 3.5lb felling head that I've got mounted on a 30" handle. IMO once you get a two handed axe much smaller than a boys axe though, its bulk vs capability ratio wanders into the relm of pointlessness. JMO.