nikto

give me a little mora and a SAW. :-) chopping is a big safety hazard to your blood vessels and enemies can hear it half a mile away. to hell with that. I can see a machete, in some areas, cause of the brush ,but an axe is no help with brush. Its far more efficient to line a dugout with Mylar than it is to build a cabin, so why bother with an axe? with the cabin, you have to KEEP chopping all that wood, breathing all that smoke, destroying ecosystems. Sure, you have to carry 2 lbs of mylar to your bol, or cache it There, so what?

gripper

It's a balancing act. SOME tools can combine hatchet/pruning hook/machete without excessive bulk. Also, size and fit to the individual is important as well.One needs a sweet spot size-wise to cover general uses. At times,bigger helps. Others? Not so much.