http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/Fspubs/99232823/toc.htm

Found this while surfing the pipes, has a bit of good information and pics.

Happened across another interesting piece of info regarding axes- I had always read how if in the woods and the handle breaks you can burn the broken piece out of the eye if you don't have a chisel. Of course tossing an axe in the fire ruins the temper, but the proper way is to wet down some dirt then drive the axe into the ground blade first until only the eye is exposed, then build a small fire over it to burn out the eye.

To remove the broken handle you use a brace and bit to drill what out you can and use a hammer and punch to knock it out.
I would never burn out an eye since all my axe use is with a double bit axe.

One of the tricks to sharpening a double bit axe is to drive one blade into a stump and sharpen the other with a file.

Where I grew up an axe was a utility tool and was used somewhat differently than is sterotyped. The double bit axe had one blade kept sharp, the other was subject to being beat up. The sharp edge was used for cutting down small trees and trimming limbs. The dull edge was used for cutting roots when digging up stumps. Sometimes you hit rocks when digging up stumps.
When building fence through the woods the barbed wire was often nailed to trees that are slightly out of line. The helper (me) hooked the barbed wire with the bottom of the axe blade and pulled it against the tree for it to be stapled. You didn't want to hold the barbed wire with anything shorter in case the wire broke.
If there was a large tree or a numeber of trees to be cut we used an ancient cross cut with is far faster than an axe in hardwood.
BTW my grandfather said he knew an old man when he was a kid. The old man could cut a cord of wood in a day with an axe. That was in post oak.