Nowadays axes are associated with the following character archetypes: Hatchets and tomahawks were used by Native Americans, musket-armed early Americans, and even many special operations soldiers to this day.

Tomahawk-like stone axes were used in the paleolithic era. These would make no sense for an axe made for trees. Finally, war axes might have features such as langets, a metal shaft, a guard, or a spike. Compare the famous two-handed Dane Axe, at 3-4 pounds to a 4-6 felling axe or a 6+ pounds splitting axe. This difference holds even for large two-handed axes. Axes made to cut trees are heavy proper use relies on letting gravity do most of the work. The heads were usually lighter than wood axes. note Battleaxes tended to be thin and usually relatively short. However, there were marked differences between axes made for war and axes made for tool use in most cases, though hatchets could make an effective weapon. In the modern era, they could similarly avoid restrictions against firearms. As tools, axes might sidestep prohibitions against commoners owning weapons. Cavalry also often had short axes as secondary or tertiary weapons specifically for close-in work. Because axes are tools and fairly simple to make note The metal needed to make a single sword could make several axe heads, but some axes had additional metal parts or even a metal shaft, they tended to be familiar to peasants, making them a viable close combat weapon of infantrymen in a variety of ancient cultures note though the Blade on a Stick spear was still likely the most common infantry weapon. Historical war axes often had different dimensions than wood axes, but many fictional designs do double-duty as both tool and weapon.

Pathfinder battle axe