Tool

Tools are items used by the player while held to perform actions faster and more efficiently, to gather materials not obtainable by hand, to gain information, or to perform completely new actions. With the exception of the clock, compass and bucket, tools do not stack in the inventory. Tools can be repaired; see Item Repair.

Best tools
Fastest tools to mine specific blocks:

Item durability
Some tools are not block-breaking tools: This includes the hoe, bow, fishing rod, carrot-and-stick, and flint-and-steel. Such tools are no better than bare fists at breaking blocks, but they do not take damage from doing so—they only take damage by being used in their own various manners.

For block-breaking tools, a use is counted only if a player completely breaks apart one block or hits a mob. If a block is partially broken this is not counted as a full use.

Note that certain uses cause either no damage or extra damage to the tool:


 * 1) Axes, pickaxes, and shovels:
 * 2) * Breaking a block that breaks instantly counts as no uses.
 * 3) * Breaking other blocks counts as one use.
 * 4) * Hitting a mob (hostile, neutral or farm animal) counts as two uses.
 * 5) Hoes:
 * 6) * Tilling dirt or grass counts as one use.
 * 7) * Breaking a block counts as no uses.
 * 8) * Hitting a mob counts as no uses.
 * 9) Shears:
 * 10) * Shearing a sheep counts as one use.
 * 11) * Breaking cobweb, leaves, tall grass, tripwire, and vines counts as one use.
 * 12) * Breaking other blocks counts as no uses.
 * 13) * Hitting a mob counts as no uses.
 * 14) Swords:
 * 15) * Breaking a block that breaks instantly counts as no uses.
 * 16) * Breaking other blocks counts as two uses.
 * 17) * Hitting a mob counts as one use.
 * 18) Fishing Rods:
 * 19) * Breaking a block counts as no uses.
 * 20) * Casting the line and reeling it in empty, counts as no uses.
 * 21) * Reeling in a fish counts as one use.
 * 22) * Catching the bobber/hook on a block, then reeling it in, counts as two uses.
 * 23) * Using the line to yank on a mob counts as three uses.
 * 24) Buckets have no durability.

Proper use of tools will maximize their durabilities. Assuming a player uses a tool appropriately, the following list shows the maximum durabilities for tools of each material type.


 * Gold - 33 uses
 * Wood - 60 uses
 * Stone - 132 uses
 * Iron - 251 uses
 * Diamond - 1562 uses

Notes:
 * Although gold tools have the lowest durability, they make the fastest tools.
 * A diamond shovel does the same damage as a wooden sword. This might come in handy.
 * Minecraft 1.5.2 tools durability is 1 use less than normal. So gold = 32 uses, Wood = 59 uses, Stone = 131 uses, Iron = 250 uses and Diamonds = 1561 uses.

Diamond tools vs. gold tools
Gold tools mine blocks the fastest of all tools in the game and have the highest enchantability (making it possible to get Silk Touch with a level 1 enchantment, which is impossible with another tool tier), however they also have the fewest uses (33) and cannot harvest most ores. Most players with the resources use diamond tools instead, which are nearly as fast and have 1562 uses before breaking. Since enchanted tools often gain unbreaking or efficiency, which are of limited use on a golden tool, making and enchanting a gold tool is wasteful, unless the player is trying to get silk touch with the fewest experience levels spent as possible. Fortune is also of little use on a golden pickaxe, which can't mine important ores like diamonds. However, since gold is now renewable, players may prefer gold tools over diamond tools in small scaled mining operations since they may want to reserve the rare, non-renewable diamonds for large scaled projects.

History
Jeb told us around 1:30 in his DreamHack presentation that it would be possible to upgrade tools, which is now known as Enchanting.

From snapshot 12w18a, wooden tools became able to be used as fuel for furnaces in case players didn't want to repair them or finish using them.

Trivia

 * If you switch from a more valuable to a less valuable tool, without releasing the mouse button, just before a block breaks, the time required will be similar to using the former tool, while the mined block will be counted against the latter's durability. This is true for shovels, axes and pickaxes. However, in the case of pickaxes, this only works if the latter can mine this type of block, e.g. for iron and stone pickaxe while mining iron ore it would work, but for diamond and iron pickaxe while mining obsidian it wouldn't. The time and material saved from this method is, however, limited. As of 1.4, this is no longer possible.
 * Using the /give command can give you tools with custom damage values. For example, /give 278 1 1500 will give the player a diamond pickaxe with 62 uses left.