Copper Axe

Every new character outside Journey Mode starts holding one of these, and it will get you the first workbench and the first roof over your head. Clearing an actual forest with it is another matter. The moment you have better bars in a chest, promote the copper one to spare-tool duty and forget about it.

Hold on to it rather than selling it, though. It feeds into the Axe of Regrowth later, and that recipe wants the humble version, not whatever you upgraded to.

If you do reforge it, pick Light. Any early axe hits so softly that combat modifiers barely register, and swing speed is the thing you actually feel while chopping. Ruthless is the one to avoid, since losing knockback matters more than a point of damage when a slime is shoving you toward a ledge.