Axe

Axes are tools used to ease the process of collecting woods, wooden planks, chests and bookshelves, but are not required to gather them. They can also be used on mobs and player as a weapon, but do half a heart less damage than swords of the same material.

Usage
The axe is used to break wood and wooden items faster. It is less necessary than a pickaxe to advance in the game as the axe is not needed to collect items for which it is suited to breaking or, in the case of bookshelves, does not help in collecting it. Most items the axe is rated for can also be broken reasonably quickly by hand. However, given most players expend fairly large quantities of wood through gameplay, the use of axes for logging and renovation will save a great deal of time in the long run.

An axe can also be used as a weapon, in which role it deals less damage than a sword, but more than any other tool in melee. Axes cannot be used to parry. Players that can reliably launch critical hits can nevertheless make axes compelling weapons, especially should a sword not be handy. They can be useful to kill passive mobs while logging.

Usage of the axe as a weapon will deal double durability damage to the axe. Moreover, axes cost more resources per tool than swords do to begin with. Hence, the axe's use as a weapon should be limited to last resort. However, a diamond axe can be a useful weapon when obtained from trading with villagers, as it does the same damage as the iron sword and is almost three times as durable. A diamond axe will also usually cost only slightly more emeralds than an iron sword.

Crafting
Axes are crafted using 2 sticks and 3 units of a tool material:

Speed and durability
The following table summarizes the speed at which different quality axes perform.