I just starting the single handed battleaxe that absorbs souls if the target dies within 5 seconds. At first we could see it absorbing souls (or energy) bbut then it stopped. It said to recharge and I think we did successfully but we're not sure because we can't see it absorbing souls any more.

Can some one tell us, did we do it wrong or what?
Thanks

You have to have empty soul gems large enough to hold the souls

what does it say top left of the screen when you make the kill?

As the above poster had mentioned, check to make sure you have a properly sized soul gem for the soul you are capturing. To check your enchantment charge level just go into your weapons inventory, highlight your weapon and double check to see if the enchantment bar is full (it will show up on your HUD when you first bring out your weapon as well).

To recharge, make sure you have a filled soulgem, you select the weapon of choice press the correct button (`T` for PC users) and then select from the list of available soulgems to recharge. If you did all this, then you did it right.