The first axe upgrade unlocks oak
The Bronze Logging Axe is the first upgrade from the Stone Logging Axe in RuneScape: Dragonwilds, and it lets you cut oak trees. If crafting recipes require Oak Logs while your starter axe cannot harvest them, bronze is your next goal. You need copper, tin, a Furnace, and a Blacksmith's Bench to make it.
There is no Bone Logging Axe between stone and bronze. Bone equipment exists elsewhere in the game, including a pickaxe, but gathering bones will not unlock an intermediate woodcutting axe. Your route goes directly from stone to bronze, so focus your material gathering on metalworking.
The upgrade involves crafting a new tool. The Bronze Logging Axe recipe does not consume your Stone Logging Axe, and repairing the stone tool does not turn it into bronze.
Make sure you select a logging axe when checking recipes. Items such as the Iron Greataxe and Steel Greataxe belong to the combat equipment category. Their recipes and equipment statistics should not be used to plan your woodcutting upgrade.
Gather ore and build a Furnace
Your first destination for bronze materials is Fractured Plains, north of Whispering Swamp. Copper Ore and Tin Ore are both found there. Collect both types: bronze requires the combination, so returning with only one leaves the smelting process incomplete.
Prepare your processing stations alongside the mining trip. Mining Clay unlocks the Furnace recipe, while a Kiln converts Ash Logs into Charcoal. Charcoal is needed both to construct the Furnace and to fuel the bronze production described below.
The Furnace construction recipe is:
| Material | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Stone | 24 |
| Clay | 8 |
| Charcoal | 4 |
| Fire Runes | 10 |
| Vault Shards | 8 |
Vault Guardians inside vaults provide a way to obtain Vault Shards. If the Furnace is your immediate objective, check your shard supply before concentrating entirely on ore. Copper and tin alone are not enough to establish the crafting chain.
Follow this preparation order:
- Mine Clay to discover the Furnace recipe.
- Process Ash Logs in a Kiln to obtain Charcoal.
- Gather the Furnace construction materials, including Fire Runes and Vault Shards.
- Collect Copper Ore and Tin Ore in Fractured Plains.
- Smelt the ores together, using Charcoal as fuel.
In the Furnace interface described by the early crafting guide, copper and tin occupy the two upper material slots, with Charcoal in the fuel slot. The result is Bronze Bars. Produce enough bars for the axe, and keep additional fuel available after paying the Furnace's construction cost.
Older guides call the bronze crafting station a Smithing Forge and describe its unlock after smelting the first Bronze Bar. The Bronze Logging Axe wiki entry lists the crafting facility as the Blacksmith's Bench. This naming difference can explain why a guide's station name does not match the recipe you are checking.
Craft and use the Bronze Logging Axe
At the Blacksmith's Bench, craft one Bronze Logging Axe with the following materials:
| Material | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Bronze Bar | 5 |
| Ash Logs | 4 |
| Coarse Thread | 2 |
The recipe uses Ash Logs, so you do not need to harvest oak before making the tool that unlocks it. This resolves the apparent progression loop when you already have recipes requiring Oak Logs but cannot yet cut an oak tree.
Keep the four crafting logs separate from the wood you intend to turn into Charcoal. Both tasks draw on your Ash Log supply, and processing every available log into fuel can leave you short at the bench.
Crafting the axe awards 60 Artisan experience. That number is an experience reward, not a requirement to reach Artisan level 60.
The bronze tool has these listed properties:
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Power level | 3 |
| Weight | 5.0 |
| Durability | 1,800 |
| Damage when felling eligible trees | 20 |
| Overhead damage when splitting | 30 |
| Repair cost | 1 Bronze Bar |
Equip the new axe before returning to an oak tree. It can harvest oak as well as the trees available to earlier logging axes, so you can continue gathering ordinary wood with the same tool.
For normal chopping, hold the left mouse button to perform the across-body swing. When Overhead Chop is available, hold the right mouse button to use it. The bronze axe's listed overhead damage applies when splitting wood; it should not be read as a universal damage increase for every chopping action.
A spare Bronze Bar also covers the listed repair cost. Including that bar in your gathering plan helps you maintain the tool after its initial crafting expense.
Plan the upgrades after bronze
Bronze solves the early oak barrier, but logging tools continue through several later materials. The logging axe list gives this progression:
| Position | Logging axe |
|---|---|
| Starting material | Stone Logging Axe |
| First upgrade | Bronze Logging Axe |
| After bronze | Iron Logging Axe |
| After iron | Steel Logging Axe |
| After steel | Mithril Logging Axe |
| After mithril | Adamant Logging Axe |
| After adamant | Rune Logging Axe |
Treat this as a progression reference when exploring new regions and discovering materials. It does not mean that every recipe consumes the previous axe. Check the actual recipe before reserving old equipment as a crafting ingredient.
Later upgrades require their own gathering and processing steps. Discovering a new metal is useful, but the finished tool may also depend on wood and processed fibers. Check the complete ingredient list before leaving a region so that your next trip addresses the missing component.
For the Mithril Logging Axe, the later progression route involves Mithril Bars, Willow Logs, and thread produced from fibers gathered during that stage of the game. Mithril is found around Black Knight's Fortress, while the route to this upgrade follows the steel-tool stage.
The mithril axe then allows you to harvest the orange-leaved maple trees around Black Knight's Fortress. Maple Logs are relevant to the subsequent Mithril Pickaxe crafting route, making the axe an important part of broader tool progression.
Use your crafting interface to confirm quantities for these later recipes. Do not substitute the requirements for a similarly named greataxe: the combat weapon and logging tool have separate material costs.
Fix common axe upgrade roadblocks
Most early problems come from a missing material, a processing step, or confusion between equipment types. Check the specific obstacle before gathering another large batch of resources.
- You are searching for a bone axe. Stop at the logging-tool category and work toward bronze. Bones do not provide the missing woodcutting upgrade.
- You have copper and tin but no bars. The ores must be processed together in a Furnace with fuel. Raw ore is not accepted in the axe's Bronze Bar slots.
- You cannot find Charcoal. Put Ash Logs into a Kiln. Keep some logs unprocessed for the axe recipe.
- You have five Bronze Bars but still cannot craft. Check for four Ash Logs, two Coarse Thread, and access to the Blacksmith's Bench.
- You crafted bronze but are still holding stone. Equip the Bronze Logging Axe before trying the oak tree again.
If a recipe has not appeared, continue discovering the relevant materials and crafting stations. However, general advice that “bone comes after stone” does not apply to logging axes. Follow the requirements of the particular tool you need rather than assuming all equipment categories advance identically.
FAQ
What is the first runescape dragonwilds axe upgrade?
The first logging axe upgrade is Stone Logging Axe to Bronze Logging Axe. Craft the bronze tool at a Blacksmith's Bench using five Bronze Bars, four Ash Logs, and two Coarse Thread. Its main early benefit is access to oak trees.
Is there a Bone Logging Axe?
No. RuneScape: Dragonwilds has a Bone Pickaxe, but no Bone Logging Axe. You can move directly toward bronze without searching for a bone woodcutting recipe or collecting bones specifically for that purpose.
Where do you get the metal for a bronze axe?
Gather Copper Ore and Tin Ore in Fractured Plains, north of Whispering Swamp. Smelt them together in a Furnace using Charcoal as fuel. You need five finished Bronze Bars for the axe itself, separate from any other crafting plans.
Does the bronze axe require oak or Artisan level 60?
The crafting recipe requires neither Oak Logs nor Artisan level 60. It uses four Ash Logs, and the listed 60 Artisan experience is the reward for crafting. Bronze is the tool you make to gain access to oak.
Does repairing an axe upgrade its material?
The Bronze Logging Axe has a repair cost of one Bronze Bar, while crafting it requires the full recipe. Repairing a stone axe is not the route to bronze. Make the separate Bronze Logging Axe at the appropriate station.
Which logging axes come after bronze?
The listed sequence continues through Iron, Steel, Mithril, Adamant, and Rune Logging Axes. Follow each tool's own recipe as you discover later materials. Greataxe recipes describe combat weapons and should not be used as substitutes for logging axe requirements.
