I would get the sword, but I play paladin and love it. I've seen HP recover at 75ish HP and proc rate of 70%ish. And correct me if I'm wrong please, the faster swing = more HP recovered. This may not be the case if the axe recovers 100hp on average to make up for the slow swinging.

But as said earlier, unless you're just in dire need of a weapon for Garuda or some other fight, keep the nuts for awhile IMO. Sure fire way to get a duplicate drop ><