No you don't need the Axe to get iron in minecraft.
However you do need a stone pickaxe to be able to mine iron ore.
Otherwise you wont get the ore and the iron ore block will just disappear when you eventually break it without a stone pickaxe or better.
Iron Axe is 258.
http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Axe <---- The link leads to minecraft wiki, it tells you how to craft a wood, stone, iron, budder, and diamond axe.
A wood axe, a stone axe, a iron axe, a golden axe, and a diamond axe
An iron pickaxe
Iron.
iron pickaxe
In normal Minecraft there is no such thing as butter. If you mean gold ore then no, you need an iron or diamond pickaxe.
It takes four minutes, but it does not drop an obsidian block.
you will need an Iron pick axe, stone or wooden pick axes do not work.
You can use any pic-axe that is made of iron or higher. On the xbox version there is a glitch to get unlimited gold
then your minecraft is bugged...
The diamond axe's ID number is 279.