Tungsten Axe

Tungsten and Silver are interchangeable here, so build whatever the world gave you. It is a middle tier chopping upgrade, enough that flattening a small forest for a tree farm stops being a chore. If you are already mining toward gold or platinum, consider skipping this rung entirely. The gap between the two tiers is small and the bars usually do more good in armor.

Go for the harvesting modifier. Combat prefixes on an axe are close to dead weight, because the swing is short and slow and you will have a real weapon one slot over.