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[Dragonchampion]

I have been thinking, I heard it mentioned once that the quality of a tool doesn't matter unless it is being used to attack something. Does this mean I can use wood to make wooden axes and use them to cut down trees instead of spending 40 points on an axe in the beginning? 

[metime00]

Yes, but this is a bug, not a feature. Kind of.

Bugs are features is the common consensus. Enjoy it while it lasts!

[forsaken1111]

Yep. From your humble wagon you can build a carpenter shop and then craft 2 training axes which can be used to chop down trees.

[Dragonchampion]

I can't see where it is a bug. Even wooden axes, if carved right, would make decent axes. I have even heard of some people in real life that use wooden axes to split logs and etc.

I think this should be kept in the game. After all, it leaves your woodcutters quite vulnerable because of their weak weapons.

[Itnetlolor]

It worked in Minecraft, why not here?

[Loyal]

Minecraft lets you punch trees with your bare fists. It's ... not quite the same.

[Dragonchampion]

Harder wood types could be used quite well as an axe. At least I think so.

[celem]

also.  a dabbling woodcutter with a wooden axe is generally superior to 0 skill wrestlers.  so its handy in a pinch if you gotta defend the wagon in the first month or so.

plus i agree with the guy above me.  ironwood could be quite good, my current rp fort has an ironwood training axe wood cutter chopping mainly saguaro cactii....i can see that working just fine

[MijRai]

Whoever says wooden axes aren't good weapons never saw my first Fun fort. The woodcutter went mad with a wooden axe, and killed everyone. He crushed their skulls into the brains, over, and over, and over again. Did it to animals too.

[forsaken1111]

It worked in Minecraft, why not here?

This is a terrible argument. Dwarf Fortress at least tries for some realism in its environment and materials use.

I can't see where it is a bug. Even wooden axes, if carved right, would make decent axes. I have even heard of some people in real life that use wooden axes to split logs and etc.

I think this should be kept in the game. After all, it leaves your woodcutters quite vulnerable because of their weak weapons.

It should only be kept in the game if he also adds in material degradation. A wooden axe may 'work' for a while but it will quickly become worn. It would also take much much longer to do its job.

[Frosty_Dorf]

Has anyone tried to mod wooden axes to require a rock and rename it Stone Axe? probably fix the issue problem. same performance, but now you can't deny it being able to chop wood (or dorf heads)

[Johnny Madhouse]

Wooden axes would lose their edge incredibly quickly. Even ironwood.

Chopping down saguaro is harder than you might think. Saguaro ribs are what provide the cactus its structure, and saguaro get very, very big. Most saguaro ribs are actually harvested long after the cactus has died. The fleshy part rots quickly, leaving the ribs to bleach in the sun.

As for primitive tools, a quick Google search suggests that most primitive tools were indeed made of stone or antler. Wood tool impressions have been found long after the actual wood rotted away, but those are mostly handles for stone and antler blades.

My google searches for 'wooden axe' and 'working wooden axe' turned up nothing but cosplay weapons, and I've never heard of wooden axes being used. Do you have a link?

[Roflcopter5000]

So for everyone who thinks a wooden axe would work... have you ever -actually- cut down a tree? Like a real tree, of decent size. Not like a sapling. Something you had to think about when you were felling it. There is no way, absolutely no way, that you could use a wooden axe to cut down a tree. The edge simply wouldn't hold long enough to cut out a wedge. You're basically pitting the strongest part of a material against the weakest part of what is essentially the same material.
In theory, if you had a perfect piece of very hard wood (oak, yew, ash) that had been cured for at least a year, and shaped so that the fibers curved along the edge of the blade, and you were using this piece of master craftsmanship to cut down a recently dead and dry pine or spruce tree... Maybe. But you're not bringing down a healthy adult tree of decent size with a wooden axe. You might split a dry round into kindling with a wooden axe. But fell a tree? Hell no.
And honestly, a wooden training axe would be useless as a training weapon too. The weight would be completely different from an actual axe. It would be impossible to give a 100% wooden weapon the same sort of balance that an actual axe would have. Swords are one thing, since they are supposed to be balanced with the center of mass in the pommel. But an axe is going to have it's center of mass further up towards the striking end. Learning how to strike with a weapon that is balanced totally differently from the real thing is useless. I think that if wooden axes are present in the game, we should probably just assume that they have a striking head of some sort of stone, and that this is abstracted for gameplay purposes.

[Kamamura]

I agree about the impossibility to cut wooden trees with wooden axes.

However, wooden weapons were used for training historically - Japanese 'bo-ken' is a a good example.

Quoth wikipedia:
"Historically, bokken are as old as Japanese swords, and were used for the training of warriors. The bokken is a wooden training tool for those martial artists interested in learning the use of a sword. In Japan, the sword and the art of its use goes back before the times of written history. There are legends that tell of the mythical period of the gods concerning their use of swords.

Miyamoto Musashi, a kenjutsu master, was renowned for fighting fully armed foes with only one or two bokken. In a famous legend, he defeated Sasaki Kojiro with a bokken he had carved from an oar while traveling on a boat to the predetermined island for the duel."

It can be argued that Japanese swords are not heavy, and depend in fine technique and sabre-style slashing action of the blade rather than on brute force - true, axes and maces are much more strength-based. However, you can still learn stances, footwork, and correct parrying positions with a wooden weapon. So it's not totally useless - though Musashi himself in Go-Rin-No-Sho says that wooden swords are a waste of time. So it really depends on the point of view - but I personally believe wooden weapons can be useful for training; at least they were in my training.

[Dorfus]

The wooden training axe would work if you coated the head in some sort of metal but still, you could achieve some parallels to a real axe by hollowing the handle and making the head out of a far denser wood. And maybe hollow that too and fill it with metal.