Early metal designs
An Egyptian relief of about 2500 bc, the time at which the pyramids were being built, shows a metal ax (copper or bronze) of curious shape, almost semicircular, lashed to a wooden handle along its diameter. The same picture shows a knee-shaft adz whose metal blade makes an angle of about 30° with the handle. If the number of pictures and artifacts of the adz is a guide, the adz was more widely used than the ax. Generally speaking, the adz had a short handle, with angles of the order of 60° between blade and handle. Although the Egyptians became skilled metalworkers, this was not reflected in their tools, the designs of which hardly changed over 2,000 years.
On the other hand, bronze axes and adzes from Mesopotamia of even the period 2700 bc are shaft-hole types, the hole for the handle being formed in the mold. Aside from eliminating the nuisance of lashing the blades, these castings permitted a heavier head than the thin-bladed Egyptian models and had better dynamic characteristics.
Shaft-hole axes and adzes were also being cast in Crete in about 2000 bc. At the same time, a new tool was created there. The double-bit (two-bladed) ax, classically associated with the Minoans, was first known in 2500 bc as a votive ax, a piece of tomb furniture made of riveted bronze plates. It became a working tool when it was cast in bronze with a shaft hole about 500 years later. Double-bit adzes also date from this time, as do ax–adz combinations. The succeeding Mycenaean, Greek, and Roman civilizations carried these designs forward. According to Homer, Ulysses used a double-bit ax of a type that disappeared with the use of bronze. Illustrations or artifacts from the Middle Ages reveal only iron single-bit types, although in a bewildering variety of profiles. By mid-19th century the double-bit was again in use, principally in the United States as a lumberman’s ax. The ax was also used in Canada and Australia, where it is still marketed.