The first thing I thought when they said this axe was too heavy was - who says! After all, we have 5lb lump hammers do we not?

To me the question of ritual/status comes down to physical condition and find location, ie. unused and part of a burial or ritual deposition since I am assuming that these started off as utility objects then transcended to high status and therefore arbitrary measures such as size may not be helpfull in decoding the meaning of a particular axe find. I'm sure this in itself is an oversimplified version of events.