House Handles is so much cheaper than the hardware stores and they know how to make a good hickory handle. Most of what you see in the stores are seconds at best. Actually, it's best to find the lightest axe you can swing that gets the job done. Guys who make a living swinging an axe sometimes have axe heads that only way 2 3/4 pounds or at most 3 lbs. Like shaving, there's a technique to chopping and axe sharpness is more important than weight. I still haven't perfected the right techniques, but I'm learning. Something my Dad never taught me is that a safe axe is a sharp axe and that it should be honed and stropped before you put it away. You should be able to shave hair off your arm with an axe. In your case you are chopping into dirt I'm guessing at times so you wouldn't want a nice honed edge. Be careful though, you'll catch the axe bug and it's every bit as bad as shaving. I was just showing a friend my axes and he dug out a box of axe heads to show me. Now he's making handles, honing, and making sheaths for them......I enabled that
