Axes

thumb|Double- and single-bit felling axesFile:An axe labelled-2edit.svg|thumb|upright|A diagram showing the main points on an axe An axe (; sometimes spelled ax in American English; see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for thousands of years to shape, split, and cut wood, to harvest timber, and as a weapon. The axe has many forms and specialised uses but generally consists of a head with a sharpened blade (also called a "bit") attached to a handle (also called "haft" or "helve").

A halberd (also called halbard or halbert) is a two-handed polearm that was in prominent use from the 13th to 16th centuries. The halberd consists of an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft. It may have a hook or thorn on the back of the axe blade for grappling mounted combatants and protecting allied soldiers, typically musketeers. The halberd was usually long.

thumb|Pipe tomahawk thumb|Modern commercial tomahawk A tomahawk is a type of single-handed axe used by the many Indigenous peoples and nations of North America. It traditionally resembles a hatchet with a straight shaft.

axe specifically designed for combat

stone tool

tool used in mountaineering and ice climbing, that allows to secure your footing in snow or ice, progress up slopes and create anchors.

Viking axe

thumb|right|Minoan gold votive double axe or labrys, less than 4 inches tall. On the left blade is an inscription in undeciphered Linear A; possibly an invocation to the goddess Demeter.|257x257px

flint arrowheads and axes, turned up by farmer's plows, considered to have fallen from the sky and worshiped as gods

Axe-like weapon use by shepherds for centuries

thumb|Retailer & manufacturer's distinction of axe and hatchet thumb|Hatchet thumb|250px|right|A hand axe (note the lack of a hammer head) A hatchet (from the Old French , a diminutive form of hache, 'axe' of Germanic origin) is a single-handed striking tool with a sharp blade on one side used to cut and split wood, and a hammerhead on the other side. Hatchets may also be used for hewing when making flattened surfaces on logs; when the hatchet head is optimized for this purpose it is called a hewing hatchet.

thumb|300px|A very large, single-bevel broadaxe

thumb|Gē with engraved decoration of a tiger, Warring States period (475–221 BC) thumb|Eastern Zhou bronze dagger-axe alt= Dagger-axes and variants|thumb|Two dagger-axes (left), alongside four jis

heavy, long-handled axe used for splitting a piece of wood along its grain

Minoan artifact

pole weapon

Bronze Age objects of the Indonesian archipelago

thumb|A mambele sickle sword at the British Museum. thumb|Variations of the mambele across the top row A mambele is a form of hybrid knife/axe in central and southern Africa, originating from a curved throwing dagger used by the Mangbetu. thumb|right|A selection of mambele throwing knives in the British Museum

thumb|right|200px|A palstave with an additional loop. A palstave is a type of early bronze axe. It was common in the middle Bronze Age in northern, western and south-western Europe. In the technical sense, although precise definitions differ, an axe is generally deemed to be a palstave if it is hafted by means of a forked wooden handle kept in place with high, cast flanges and stop bar. The axe should be much thicker on the blade side of the stop bar than the hafting side (Schmidt and Burgess 1981, p. 115). In these respects, it is very close, but distinct from, earlier 'flanged axes'. Palstav

type of axe

thumb|Scythian archer holding a sagaris, as depicted by the vase-painter Euphronios on an Attic red-figure [[neck amphora (510–500 BC, Louvre)]]

sculpture

thumb|300px|right|A froe A froe (or frow), shake axe or paling knife is a tool for cleaving wood by splitting it along the grain. It is an L-shaped tool, used by hammering one edge of its blade into the end of a piece of wood in the direction of the grain, then twisting the blade in the wood by rotating the haft (handle).

thumb|upright|Jacques Balmat carrying an axe and an alpenstock thumb|upright|1872 diagram of an early ice axe, showing how the alpenstock was modified by the addition of a pick and an adze

Parashu () is the Sanskrit word for a battle-axe, which can be wielded with one or both hands.

Traditional weapon from the Congo

thumb|Trumbash with an ivory handle A trumbash or trombash is a Mangbetu throwing knife from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

An onzil (or osele or musele) is a throwing knife of ethnic groups from eastern Gabon (Kota, Fang, Mbété). thumb|Onzil from eastern Gabon

A large axe.

The panabas is a chopping bladed weapon or tool from the Philippines, variously described as both a sword and a battle axe. It has a distinctive long straight haft and a curving blade of various designs. It can range in size from and can be held with one or both hands, delivering a deep, meat cleaver-like cut.