I don't know man.
On the Hammer thread there was a portion of the thread explaining that the tapered eye of a Hammer was an American invention. It did not exist until well into the Industrial Revolution.
Before that most hammers had little use in prying, like a claw hammer, due to the fact that the basic eye (like you see in the axe above) would come loose very quickly.
Until the invention of the tapered and elongated eye a carpenter had to have 2 tools.
A Hammer to drive nails, and a dedicated prybar to remove them.
I think this axe is capable of more work than what we give it.
For instance that beard looks like it is designed for choking up and doing some fine work with (geometry would depend if this is possible).
Sure you could hook shields with it while your buddy dismembers your enemy, but I kinda think that Steel and Iron back in the day had better uses than for everything to be just a straight up weapon.
Everyone needs tools.
Then again. Tools get used and used until they get turned into something else.
Weapons get sharpened, oiled, and put back on the wall.
For "examples" to survive hundreds and hundreds of years and not get turned into a tool, or to be made from a broken tool into another working tool, makes me think that someone passed it down as a weapon.
"Just-in-case there is something hiding in the thatched roof in the corner that doesn't leak." Type of deal.
However, again, nunchucks and staffs are everyday tools. Same with Bill-hooks and hammers.
Yet I wouldn't want an angry mob of farmers coming after me armed with them.
I vote tool.
