The axe, which found its earliest form as a rough stone with a chipped edge, is the earliest and most basic of all wood working tools. It appears that around 6000 B.C. wooden shafts were first bound as handles to the flint and stone axes.

Hatchets are smaller, lighter axes, usually weighing no more than 2.5 pounds.

The earliest metal axes were made of copper, then later of bronze. The butt of the ax was mounted between the forked end of a handle. Later the ax head was cast with a hollow socket into which the handle was fitted.

Specialty axes were developed during the Middle Ages; among these were long-headed axes for felling trees and broad-sided axes with a sharpening bevel for hewing timber.

Around 1800 or before, the wedge ax, with a short, wedge-shaped blade, was developed in England; popular in America, it became known as the Yankee, or American axe. In addition to felling axes, there are mortise axes, side axes, hatchets, and specialized axes made for particular trades.