I have used axe extensively in the Silverwastes to greater effect than my current quasi-zerker build by making use of sharpened edges and torch. It becomes very easy to stack 10+ bleeds in a single splitblade on multiple enemies. In terms of other things axe is very frustrating because although your auto stacks might, #2 and #3 on your bar do not help much so you have to rely on your OH, by extension either WH (which has weak offense) and OH Axe (#4 is a dps increase for direct ranged damage), meaning you will struggle to compete with other weapon sets.
If you want to play pure condi, then go axe. I’m sure if you are creative you can get ‘zerker’ levels of DPS with sinister/rabid armours. I don’t agree that SB is a better option in terms of condi ‘cleave’, as a trapper build with axe from my experience can generate a much greater total number of bleeding stacks across multiple nearby foes. For direct damage you are limited by the base damage of all of your MH skills, so I would use something else entirely.
One thing I would mention, which lead to my newest ranger build, is that it gets hard to create a condi ‘nuker’ build without sacrificing other things. Axe/Torch has no mobility and taking traps limits this even further. Taking OH dagger gives you a maximum of 50% burn uptime (Fire Trap). Sword/WH as your second weapon set gives you swiftness, a blast for your fire field and some mobility, but losing splitblade for 10s causes your AoE DPS to drop massively. SB is the best option here but it sucks for moving around in PvE. Compounded with this, any sort of significant party support goes out of the window because you have to focus on using specific condi-inducing traits e.g. taking Spotter AND Frost spirit becomes a challenge because of heavy investment in Skirmishing and Wilderness survival. A 4/3/4/3/0 split is a problem because multi-ticking traps can really help with stacking those all important bleeds, and 3 in Skirmishing misses out on both Trap traits. If you don’t want to use traps then fair enough, but maintaining burning on multiple foes becomes a problem. Taking even one of the above + support/control of any kind becomes a drain on condi-DPS.
My old build was 0/6/4/0/4 with krait runes using rending attacks + birds/devourers (profession mechanic ftw >.>). Yes this build was deeply flawed, but this build was made with highest total bleed stacks in mind. I quite liked Nike’s point on builds having some measure of damage/control/support and my old axe build had to work too hard to give these three characteristics in any sort of regard, whilst also having ‘aim splitblade so all axes hit’ as the only skillful play.
TL;DR Traiting an axe/condi build on ranger becomes a very selfish activity despite its relatively effective condi stacking ability. It swiftly becomes a very lonely experience. In dungeons you are not helpful, and in PvE zergs (excluding SW) there are only so many times splitblade —> 10 bleeds is fun to look at. For Silverwastes, the sheer level of destruction of mordrem husks makes condi axe more than worth your while, however, if you are willing to sacrifice other, less relevant things.