Why do you think the stereotypical image of a woodcutter is a big, brawny fellow ? I've chopped down enough small trees back at the family summer cottage to have an inkling of how hard work it is, certainly.

Side note: the funny archeologists over here apparently at one point tried cutting down a few trees with a reconstructed stone axe, just to see how well it performs compared to modern ones. The result ? Almost as good; the metal axes' real advantage is more in the malleability and reusability of the material rather than performance.