A new update.
Recently I wisited the tool department of SEARS and found 2 smaller Craftsman hatchets which might be acceptable budget choices for light hiking axes.
One is the Craftsman 22 oz. Half Hatchet (Mfr. model #48285) with 13" straight handle and a 3.5" straight edge, for $20.
http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/prod...rtical=TOOL&subcat=Hammers&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes
It is practically identical to the Vaughan & Bushnell 22oz. Carpenter Half Hatchet - SH2. If you serach on the net you will find that many SEARS Craftsman brand striking tools are actually produced by Vaughan & Bushnell.
The head of the Craftsman hatchet is not finished so well, and the handle is treated with a reddish finish instead of the clear varnish of the Vaughan one, but it has a textbook convex-concave-convex thin bit cross-section which would make it ideal for hardwood chopping. It has a nice hardened true hammer poll. The head is secuired with 2 metal wedges.
This hatchet IMHO would make a great kindling hatchet and is short enough to fit in a backpack.
The straight handle is quite usable, but it feels a little bit thick for this length (13").
In the store there was a larger and longer, 28 oz Craftsman rigbuilder hatchet too, which does not show up online on sears.com (only the Vaughan is shown there). This packes a much larger punch, since it has a 18" handle and a heavier head, but it feels a very specialized tool, especially due to the milled face on the hammer poll. At that size I would prefer the GB Small Forest Axe or the Wetterlings Large Hunter, or if lighter is the goal, a tomahawk.
The other Craftsman hatchet which caught my attention is the Craftsman Camp Axe (#48101) with a 1 1/4 lb head and a curved 14" reddish hickory handle for $17.
This is not shown on the sears.com site and is not identical to the all-steel Craftsman camp axe which has a mfr.# of 4810 instead of 48101.
This was the nicest camp axe I've seen in a hardware store so far.
It is evidently made by Vaughan, and is similar but not identical to the
Vaughan & Bushnell Camp Axe shown here:
http://acmehardware.com/pd-4451233-Vaughan-Camp-Axe.aspx
The Craftsman version has a more curved a more nicely formed handle, the head is not black, but a varnished steel head with 3" edge.
It has a thicker, more wedge like bit cross section and is definitely designed for splitting rather than chopping or wood working.
It does not come with a sheath but at least there is an edge guard (which is absent from the Carpenter's hatchet).
There is no metal, only a wooden wedge for securing the head, but this, at least was nicely fitted. It feels much more bit heavy, and I found the 14" curved handles quite comfortable on this one (unlike other brand camp axes I've handled until that).
There were 2 visibly different lots of this campe axe in the store. A few had a much more carefully formed head and the stamping on those was of better quality too. The majority were a little bit less nicely done, but both seemed to be Vaughan ones and even the rougher ones were above the typical hardware store camp axe offerings (Barco, True Temper etc.).
I wonder if the Craftsman #48101 is an old stock accidentally remaining in a few SEARS stores or a regular model.
