Why is a stone axe better than a fireman's?

[The Coal Man]

I've been using the fireman's since I found it but it broke and instead of walking back to base for a repair kit I swapped back to my stone to finish up the last bit. I noticed that while the stone axe doesnt do as much block damage, it hits almost twice as fast and barely uses stamina faster than I regenerate making it a much better tool for woodcutting. Especially since its way cheaper/easier to use a rock instead of a repair kit for repairs.

Whats going on here? My stone axe is purple quality and the fireman's is orange, but I still wouldn't expect it to work almost 3x better. Is it solely because the stone axe is such a high quality? I thought quality mostly just changed the durability.

[Shurenai]

Quality affects a number stats, not just durability. Block damage, weapon damage, durability.. Attack speed is untouched, though.

Switching to a higher tier tool isn't necessarily a linear path, though. Attack speed does matter, but whether or not you're bottoming out your stamina constantly matters too. Having a Q6 Steel Pickaxe is going to be worse than an iron axe when you can only swing the thing twice before emptying your stamina. So it is with stone vs iron; IF you don't have the stamina regen and max stamina to support using the better tool, then using the better tool is a downgrade.

And as mentioned, quality affects a number of stats, among which is block damage. But more importantly, quality effects the number of mod slots on the item. Every installed mod on a weapon/tool increases it's primary stat by 15% in addition to whatever other effect the mod brings to the table; For Tools, the primary stat is Block Damage. So your Q6 Stone Axe can fit on 4 mods and is doing 1.6x as much damage, while your orange iron axe only has I think 1 slot on it, therefor only doing 1.15x as much damage.

[Crater Creator]

Tools are structured so that primitive, tier 0 tools like a stone axe work best in the early game, when your character can’t sustain high levels of stamina. As you advance and gain skills and max stamina, iron and steel tools are meant to be increasingly useful, efficient options. There’s also some overlap between high quality at one tier and low quality at the next tier. Stats for non-primitive tools are randomized, so it’s possible you just got a crummy one. The biggest advantage of a high quality tool, though, is having more mod slots. Oh, and if you do have mods on one, make sure you’re comparing unmodified values.

Edit: ninja’d by Shurenai. Must type faster!

[The Coal Man]

Thanks to both of you for explaining it so well! Both were great explanations.