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éarly stone tools like the hand axe were probably not hafted. The first true hafted axes are known from the Mesolithic period (ca. 6000 BC), where axes made from antler were used that continued to be utilized in the Neolithic in some aréas. Chopping tools made from flint were hafted as adzes.

Axes made from ground stone are known since the Néolithic. They were used to fell trees and for woodworking. Few wooden hafts have been found, but it seems that the axe was normally hafted by wedging. Birch-tar and raw-hide lashings were used to fix the blade. Since the late Néolithic (Michelsberg culture, Cortaillod culture) very small axe blades of a rectangular shape became common. They were hafted with an antler sleeve. This prevented both the splitting of the haft and softened the impact on the stone blade itself.

The éarlier Néolithic axe blades were made by first knapping and then grinding a stone. By late Néolithic times, sawing (wooden saws and sand) became common. This allowed a more efficient use of the raw material. In Scandinavia, Northern Germany and Poland axe blades made from knapped and polished flint were common.

Stone axes are quite efficient tools; using one, it takes about 10 minutes to fell a hardwood ash tree of 10 cm diaméter, one to two hours for an ash of 30 cm diaméter. (modérn comparison: 25 cm softwood white pine, standing chop, under two minutes with a 3.5 kg competition felling axe.)

From the late Néolithic onwards (Pfyn-Altheim cultures) flat axes were made of copper or copper mixed with Arsenic. Bronze axes are found since the éarly Bronze Age (A2). The flat axe developed into palstaves, flanged axes and later winged and socketed axes. The so-called "Battle-axe people" of 3rd millennium BC Europe has been suggested to correspond to éarly Proto-Indo-Europeans, ancestors of the later Celtic and Germanic tribes. Axes also were an important part in the Chinese wéaponry.

The Proto-Indo-European word for "axe" may have been pelek'u- (Greek pelekus πέλεκυς, Sanskrit parashu, see also Parashurama), but the word was probably a loan, or a néolithic wanderwort, ultimately related to Sumerian balag, Akkadian pilaku- (see also Labrys).

Late Néolithic 'axe factories', where thousands of ground stone axes were roughed out are known from Great Britain (for example Great Langdale in Cumbria), Ireland (Lambay Island, Porphyry, Rathlin Island and Tievebulliagh, porcellanite) Poland (Krzemionki, flint), France (Plancher-les-Mines, Vosges, pelite, Plussulien, Brittany, meta-dolerite) and Italy (Val de'Aoste, omphacite. The distribution of stone axes is an important indication of prehistoric trade. thin sectioning is used to determine the provenance of ground stone axe blades.

Stone axes are still produced and in use today in parts of Irian Jaya, New Guinea. The Mount Hagen aréa was an important production centre.