But it's just pedantry anyhow, as many people in the US use 'axe' to mean everything from hatchets to mauls to fireman's axes. I do wish people would use the correct terms in general, as it causes a ton of consumer confusion. There's a really light felling axe I like, and every bad review is a broken handle trying to split giant pieces of wood.
Either or. If you do see this, yes, you are both right that I would be best to be using a maul.
But not everyone has a proper splitting maul available, and mine was kind of missing that day... So I used my 20$ timber store 'everything' axe. I should have been more specific, as you make a point of. I call it that, cause I'm not sure which kind of axe it really is, but it gets used for pretty much everything, lol.