Ax, also spelled axe, is a chopping tool. It has a single-edged or double-bladed head attached to a handle. Ancient axes had heads of stone, copper, bronze, or iron. Modern axeheads are made of steel or steel alloy. Ax handles, called hafts, were traditionally hardwood. Modern hafts are also made from plastic or fiberglass.
People have long used chopping and throwing axes as weapons. The oldest axes are known from a prehistoric site in Australia. There, archaeologists recovered a fragment of a stone ax that dates to between 46,000 and 49,000 years ago. Ancient stone axes are also known from Japan, where they date back to about 35,000 years ago. Stone axes often appear in other regions with the development of farming. The earliest metal axes were made more than 5,000 years ago. In the Middle Ages (about the A.D. 400’s through the 1400’s), warriors wielded battle-axes and long poleaxes. Today, loggers use various types of axes to cut down and split trees. Firefighters’ axes help them break into burning buildings.
