Axe

An axe is a shaft (usually metal or wood) with a bladed head attached to the opposite end of the handle. If used in combat, the user is known as an axeman.

Strengths and Weaknesses
Axes are not commonly used in the series, but have made several appearances. Axes themselves have a varieties of uses and are designed to be a chopping tool with a single or double headed blade, while varieties like the "hatchet" have a hammer on the other side. The axe head was altered slightly to fit the needs, for chopping and other precision required axes the blades to be narrower, while ones designed for combat are much heavier with a larger blade.

In combat, the strength of the axe is its ability to deal a blow to a foe, often creating a single lethal blow, often relying as much on the weight of the blade itself to deal the force as the thrust itself. The axe could cut a limb clean off in a single blow even if it did not always kill the enemy. Light-weight versions, however, could be utilized for throwing. Compared to other throwing weapons such as the javelin or daggers, their use as a throwing weapon is often deadlier, but harder to be precise with. Since an axe has a reputation for being armor penetrating or dealing a lethal blow it also makes an axeman fearsome, thus the weapon had some intimidation value in battle as well.

Otherwise the axe is normally a slow weapon because of the chopping arc needed for the force behind it, leaving the wielder vulnerable to faster melee weapons such as daggers or swords.

There is one more advantage to the axe over most other weapons; its endurance. Even a blunt axe has damage potential to also bludgeon a victim to death. This was a contrast to the sword, which needs to be kept relatively sharp to be most effective.

Types
Axes are essentially broken down into two categories; though there is sometimes overlapping, normally axes are designed for a specific purpose.

Tool-based
Though an axe could be used as a weapon, several characters have been seen using axes built for other means, as chopping wood. Some notable examples can be seen in the Water 7 Saga, being used by Galley-La Company employees, or in Tom's flashbacks.

Weapon based
These axes were designed for battle. Morgan is the first significant person within the series to be known as an axeman, having replaced his severed right hand with a large single-bladed axe, living to his epithet "Axe-Hand Morgan". Brogy wielded a Bruiser Axe that ultimately shattered after 100 years of battle. Kashii, like his captain Brogy, uses a single-sided axe. Sentomaru uses a giant, double-bladed broad axe that is known as a masakari, but only utilizes it in tougher situations. X Drake uses a peculiar type of battle axe, in which it has four blades, one in each cardinal direction. Lonz uses a giant double-bladed axe. Vander Decken IX uses a large amount of giant axes, embossed with rose design on the center, either with single or double sided blades; he would either use them for close combat (single-side) or as throwing projectiles (double-blade) that is combined with his Mato Mato no Mi. Boo has three double-sided axes, to which he can imbue with Busoshoku Haki to increase their strength.

Trivia

 * There exists a Dial known as the Axe Dial, which fires off a blast of razor-thin air blast.
 * Nami was originally going to be an axe user.

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