I TOTALLY DO THE EXACT SAME THING!

When I worked at the surplus traping supplies store I sold a whole bunch of the much more expensive but way better Oxhead/Iltis axes by "pinging" them and they made the best ring I have ever heard a steel make. It was like the mating call to a deer the way guys would hear that ping and out came the plastic. That is a first rate heat treat and probably like Goemon said the wood handle but the cheap chinese ones with the fibreglass handles made a soft clank and the guy had to be really really cheap not to spend the cash on the good ones.

The A2 on my SBT makes a bit nicer of a sound than the 154 HCLE which is also quite nice though.