Axe recommendations

[Timelord]

First evidence of flaked stone tools is from about 750,000 years ago. The cold steel website does show an interesting array of axes even if just for comparison. While some of these Swedish & other Nordic makes of axe are excellent, I do feel the pudding is over egged a bit when it comes to the "hand forged by Master craftsmen" advertising and the Swedish steel type of mythology. An axe is no Hi-Tech item and the construction is amazingly simple. Any decent axe will have a hardened edge forge welded into the main body of steel. This can be done by hand or industrially. It will not make much difference. Axe steel specification necessitates a steel that is not too brittle and so a razor sharp edge holding ability is neither required or necessary. An axe edge will be a steeper angled bevel (flat or convex) than a knife anyway.
Many good axes can be found at car booties and the like. Look for old axe heads and they go for buttons. Remember an axe head can always be reprofiled with an angle grinder to your desired shape.
By the way, the normal type of woodsman or fire axe profile is not great for decapitation of Zombies, as the thickness of the head will result in binding. While ok for live examples due to the massive damage an axe will cause, it should be noted that for Zombies, A slim battle axe type profile is more suitable - so that the axe does not get caught up in the target. lol. TL.
I shy away from composite handles as they are not indestructable and render the axe head useless if they get damaged.