UKH

I'm looking for a light weight walking axe.  It's for things like walking and non technical glacier crossings and walks where I need to be carrying one but actually needing to arrest is unlikely.

My current walking axe is a 25 year old steel behemoth that significantly outweighs my technical ice tools.

Looking for something ideally well under half a kilo, not necessarily T rated.  Price doesn't bother me that much as I expect it to take me to retirement.

Given those requirements, what's currently good?

Honestly they are all kind of much of a muchness. I swear by my petzl quarks for sheer versatility, but it's pretty hard to go too far wrong 

I generally just carry one of my quarks these days but it feels like overkill to me, and there's always that moment when I'm packing where I'm just a couple of hundred grams over my weight limit...

BD Raven or Petzl Glacier if you want a 60+cm axe, Petzl Glacier Literide if you want to go lighter and would be happy with 50cm. 

I have a petzl glacier literide. 50cm, 316g. Is good, can get it for about £60 now as it's not very new. However, if I was getting it again I'd consider getting a petzl ride (45cm, 250g) or gully (45cm, 280g, actually seems very good for climbing), which they annoyingly brought out one year after I bought the literide. Well I'd get the gully because I'd want it to be good for climbing, but the ride would be good for walking.

I'm of the opinion that a long axe is pretty pointless for walking, but if you like a long axe then those are obviously quite short options.

If you're looking for something seriously light that just fulfils the criteria of being an axe then some of the ski mo ones are very light these days. E.g. the camp corsa race is 50cm and 188g!

The Petzl Ride looks pretty spot on actually.  250g with a steel pick looks like a good balance.

I've been pleased with the new(ish) DMM Spire Tech - light, but with a decently sturdy head if you need to chop a step or two. Not too pricey by current standards either.
There's a straight shaft version too if your preferences lie that way (the Spire)

Yeah I think it's the lightest axe out there with a fully steel pick. No 'proper' spike at the end of the shaft, but I don't think many (any?) of the sub 300g models have that. I'd happily throw away the 'proper' spike to save some weight anyway. The angled shaft spike thing looks to work pretty well, though I've not used one.

I was in the same boat. My old walking axe weighed around 750g. I just got a Grivel Ghost 50cm. £62 from Banana Fingers, posted. Haven’t used it yet but at 270g it’s a big weight difference. I’ll probably still use the old axe occasionally, depending on how light I need things to be on the day.

I've used a Camp Nanotech for a few years now on glaciers and grade 1/2 scrambles and I'd recommend it.

Weighs 250g although I added a leash which adds a few more grammes. Currently available at around £87. 

I got a Blue Ice Bluebird a few years ago - 356 grams. It's a think of beauty and I can't really find anything wrong with it. I pair it with a Petzl Gully Hammer, which is even lighter, if I'm climbing steeper stuff, but it's much more nice in the hand than the Gully so better as an all rounder - for walking or climbing easy stuff with one tool, but paired with the gully I've happily climbed II,3 mixed.

I looked at the Petzl Ride too but wanted a tool I could use leashless and still climb with, which meant one with a sliding hand rest like the Gully and the Bluebird both have. If you really need to pull on them, you can - just like your tech tools, but you don't have a leash discouraging you to swap hands when zigzagging up lower angle terrain.

It's replaced a Chouinard zero- assuming it's the same length till I buy another I'll need it for braking my wheelchair!

Thanks for the replies everyone.  I ended up going for the Petzl Ride as I decided that the 45cm shaft would make my packing easier.  Was sorely tempted by the glacier literide and DMM options.

I did notice the blue ice hummingbird was about 40g lighter at the low low price of £2 per gram saved, but I always take the p*ss out of people who buy titanium everything and can't be seen to lose face now!