The Headman’s Cleaver is an executioner’s axe first seen in The Elder Scrolls: Blades. The Headman’s Cleaver Creation adds it to Skyrim with a short bandit-hunting quest.
How to get it
Talk to an innkeeper to hear about the quest Blood in the Water and read the Letter from Shogarz gro-Batul. Then clear the bandits in Lost Knife Hideout and retrieve the axe.
Enchantment
None, and it is flagged so that it cannot be enchanted. The game data contains an unused enchantment (stamina damage and bleeding), but it is not active.
Stats and handling
25 base damage at a weight of 24 – the same damage as a Daedric Battleaxe, but lighter, and far better than an Orcish Battleaxe. It uses the Two-handed skill.
Smithing
Improve it with an 
Orichalcum Ingot. It needs Arcane Blacksmith, and Orcish Smithing doubles the improvement.
Strengths and weaknesses
- Strength: Daedric-level damage that you can get early.
- Strength: cheap orichalcum tempering.
- Weakness: no enchantment, and you can’t add one.
Tips
- Use poisons to make up for the missing enchantment.
- Battleaxe bleed perks in Two-handed work well with its high base damage.
Added by the Headman’s Cleaver Creation, part of the Skyrim Anniversary Edition. Details checked against UESP and summarised in our own words.
