They kicked out lot of people and moved most of garden tool manufacturing to Poland recently, not sure if axes are made here anymore if those too are made in Poland now. Well, it is better than China I guess and in Poland there has been quite good skills of craftsmanship, not sure about industrial manufacturing though.
Husqvarna axe is better than Fiskars from what I have read, Stihl axe might be something to try too, Fiskars is not only one doing high end axes, but with all you are going to pay a premium from high end status.
Longer handle might be nice if accuracy is not so important, especially if hitting rounds knee height or lower, for me accuracy is more important than leverage as my splitting block is navel height and I use car tire on top of that, so I prefer shorter handles, what I lack with leverage from handle, I substitute with upper body strength, If I don't have the strength I need to bulk up
Now that axe in photo needs better edge, first you need to grind combined angle of 30 degrees (15 degrees each side), then use stone that is used to sharpen a scythe to make combined angle of 50 degrees (25 degrees each side) for the very edge, that is so that edge will last better.
See attached picture for better idea. Bottom of pic has oval shaped stone used to sharpen scythes and also that is recommended tool called Kovasin by those instructions to sharpen axes. Instructions are from forest tool guide from somewhere around 1948-1952, can't remember now exact year, but it was time when 4 inches of saw dust separated -20F outdoors and some heat indoors, all heating was done by wood and it was made with saws and axes, transported by horses and men, so tools had to be lot better than those of today as life really depended from those tools.
I have few axes, there is some history for Fiskars, there used to be Billnäs axes made in Billnäs Finland, Fiskars axes are kind of progression from those I believe, but Billnäs axe steel is superior to Fiskars steel, in my opinion.
I don't need to sharpen my Billnäs nearly as often and those are something around 50 years old axes now. You might try to look those Billnäs axes from ebay, but hard to find and expensive these days.
That shiny Billnäs with wooden short handle next to Fiskars in attached pic has no real difference in splitting ability to that Fiskars axe, but handle is much better, there is not much of any kind of shock when hitting with it, also it does not get stuck, where Fiskars likes to get stuck.
I'm not very good at making handles though, I need to practice that lot more as well as grinding and sharpening my axes.
That black Billnäs with long handle is work in progress, but might be I start all over with that.
Big axe with thick handle and some yellow in axe head is also Billnäs, it is great for splitting dry spruce, Fiskars sucks splitting that as it gets stuck or bounces off.
My Fiskars is something close to X17, but very old and worn, it had way too steep edge when I got it free, since then I have split so much wood with it that axe head has lost good bit of material from constant need of sharpening.
Chinese cheap axes don't hold edge so well and they are just rough axe shaped objects, you need to finish product yourself as it is with most Chinese products, but price is lot less than those high end axes.
Blue handled small Chinese axe did cost something like 8$ and had no edge at all, it had two different angles at something that tried to be edge, but it was same as having no edge at all, needed lot of grinding, but now I can take shavings off from face of wood, similar to what I get with hand plane. That axe is used to carving stuff mostly, making axe handles was reason I bought it, useless at splitting but replaces knife quite often.
Not all axes are created equal for sure and no single axe does not do all jobs, I really wish to get Husqvarna S2800 some day, but meanwhile I need to restore and service what I have.
Last two pics I put up have Fiskars splitting wedge which I use to make 3ft long firewood for long term drying and tool we call vesuri, I don't know english name for it, but it is used to fell small stuff and de-limb a trees, works as axe replacement too as it is quite heavy for it's size. Requires strong forearms to use.
I get wonderful burn to my arms with that tool, but use it often instead of chainsaw to cut limbs of from smaller trees I have felled with chainsaw, 20$ a gallon fuel is bit expensive to be burned when you can get by with hand tool.
So yeah, get right tool for the job and even not all axes are equal, you can get by with cheap Chinese ones too, they just require bit of modifying and bit more servicing!
