The Weight
The battle axe is the ogre's preference over the blade — it wins the parry by weight, not by hand. The head is iron, the haft is oak, and the swing is a refusal to let go all the way through. The axe does not cut the way the sword cuts — the axe argues with the parry, and the parry is the one who is hit, and the body behind the parry is the body that is still standing.
A journeyman battle axe is a season's labor in the head, and the head is named — the forge, the hand, the year. A master battle axe has the maker's mark on the poll, and the poll is the part that takes the blow so the haft does not — which is the whole point, and the whole reason the battle axe is the weapon of the man who has decided the argument is not about being fast.
In the Hand
The battle axe is the arm band's answer to the long sword: weight over hand, the parry is the one who is hit, and the body behind the parry is the body that is still standing. It is the answer to the flail, the answer to the warhammer, and the question the long sword asks: what if the weight is the argument, and the argument is the one who is still standing?
"The axe is not a weapon. The axe is a weight — and the weight is the one who is still standing." — Rumzuck Umbatsch