Unless you like Leroy Jenkins into fuling villages (with bonemass power), aoe weapons are little use in this game.

Only for harvesting crops, and maybe leveling a bit faster hitting multiple targets (elder leveling is working but mostly meh and boring as hell).

The 20% spped penalty PLUS doubled stamina usage and inability to parry is not worth the hassle, especially considering the huge amount of crafting ressources : iron being the most troublesome to get in large quantities, and is useful for too much things to be wasted on iron sledge.

I tried, it's not worth the hassle, really. Just go with frostner or iron mace + shield and literraly bash your way through the whole (actually released) game content with ease.