I've owned this hatchet for one month and bought it to do some light splitting for backyard fires and for yard maintenance.The wood I split is roughly 5 to 8ish inch rounds of cured maple. While the hatchet does its job, it takes a fair number of strikes to fully split them. This isn't the fault of the hatchet however; it isn't a dedicated splitting axe.I do use this bad boy though to clean up fallen branches in the yard. It cuts through limb joints with little effort and it's so, so satisfying to cleave them with ease.One aspect I particularly admire about this hatchet is the quality of the steel. Even with many strikes against hardwood, the edge retains sharpness, which is the reason I didn't simply buy a cheap hatchet at a bigbox store. But, for full disclosure, I do hone it between uses with just few strokes on a ceramic rod.The finishing of the axe is fine. The edge is centered with the head. The grind line is, however, slightly ununiform at the termination of one end of each side. I'm not terribly bothered by it though. It's the wabi‐sabi of something made by hand.The handle manufacturing is fine as well. There aren't any gaps in the seating of the handle to the head. The wood grain is respectable. It doesn't have the tightest or loosest grain I've seen in hickory (which I use in many projects) but it's solid and functional. And, finally the grain is straight. All in all, I'm pleased with my purchase.