A way to craft boards without saws.....PLEASE

[Flavortownsbest]

Hey, so I love this game a lot, I have been following the development of it, and after some time of hopping in and out between builds I figure there are some things I feel that are missing from early game, primarily a way to craft boards using primitive stone/wood wedges and a mallet. Of course this is a very inefficient solution to craft boards compared to a saw but sometimes trying to find copper to make a saw just puts me off from playing the game entirely. like I can craft a wooden pan from nothing but a log and knife, but I can't craft a wooden bucket... Anyway I still love what yall are doing and wish the devs the bestest of luck!

 

Here is a video showcasing the feasibility of creating boards without a saw, you can sub the axe for a stone wedge or stone axe but yeah

 

Edited February 7 by Flavortownsbest
Updated broken link

[MKMoose]

40 minutes ago, Flavortownsbest said:

I can craft a wooden pan from nothing but a log and knife, but I can't craft a wooden bucket...

The logic behind this is that a wooden pan is made by woodcarving, hence the knife. There's good chance that woodworking or more specifically woodcarving will be a more developed mechanic at some point in the future, since it's listed on the roadmap.

If you need the bucket for your farming needs, then keep in mind that you can set up farmland near natural water, or alternatively (though it can be a bit tedious) keep the crops watered with natural rain supplemented with a watering can.

 

The advantage of the current design is that it creates a clear progression milestone and spaces out unlocking various items without throwing all of them at the same time at a beginner. Making boards craftable without a saw would effectively throw a wrench into the current progression system, because many of the important progression motivators like doors, buckets, chests, barrels and henboxes would be unlocked significantly earlier. Having one specific way to obtain boards also prevents new players from getting bogged down in a slow and inefficient early-game process when trying to craft larger quantities of boards instead of finding a clear and obvious goal to progress towards.

I wouldn't expect this to ever get added to vanilla, but that said, I could see a way to craft specific items a bit earlier. It could either be done with more basic woodcarving and woodworking processes, or with alternative item variants and alternatives like clay amphorae or leaden vessels to allow more efficient liquid storage and transport before buckets and barrels.

[Thorfinn]

There are mods that add clay "buckets" and boards that do not require saws. Give them a shot. I thought they short-circuited progression too much. Copper anvils can be hard to justify if you are not a hoarder and already have most of the pottery you want.

[Flavortownsbest]

22 hours ago, MKMoose said:

The logic behind this is that a wooden pan is made by woodcarving, hence the knife. There's good chance that woodworking or more specifically woodcarving will be a more developed mechanic at some point in the future, since it's listed on the roadmap.

If you need the bucket for your farming needs, then keep in mind that you can set up farmland near natural water, or alternatively (though it can be a bit tedious) keep the crops watered with natural rain supplemented with a watering can.

 

The advantage of the current design is that it creates a clear progression milestone and spaces out unlocking various items without throwing all of them at the same time at a beginner. Making boards craftable without a saw would effectively throw a wrench into the current progression system, because many of the important progression motivators like doors, buckets, chests, barrels and henboxes would be unlocked significantly earlier. Having one specific way to obtain boards also prevents new players from getting bogged down in a slow and inefficient early-game process when trying to craft larger quantities of boards instead of finding a clear and obvious goal to progress towards.

I wouldn't expect this to ever get added to vanilla, but that said, I could see a way to craft specific items a bit earlier. It could either be done with more basic woodcarving and woodworking processes, or with alternative item variants and alternatives like clay amphorae or leaden vessels to allow more efficient liquid storage and transport before buckets and barrels.

You bring up a fair point about the woodworking rework, I guess I'm just being impatient lol. Hopefully that and other future updates provide some more beginning alternatives to things.

[Dark Thoughts]

A stone axe isn't really that sharp, because a proper sharp edge would be so thin that it would break immediately. They're more like blunt weapon with a bit of an angled edge, which is not suitable for log splitting. Also, the saw is a technological gating mechanism that opens up a whole bunch of items. It's part of the progression into the metal age.

[LadyWYT]

On 2/7/2026 at 12:47 PM, MKMoose said:

I wouldn't expect this to ever get added to vanilla, but that said, I could see a way to craft specific items a bit earlier. It could either be done with more basic woodcarving and woodworking processes, or with alternative item variants and alternatives like clay amphorae or leaden vessels to allow more efficient liquid storage and transport before buckets and barrels.

I mostly agree, however, it would be a prime spot for an adze. The adze could be used to strip logs and craft support beams instead of relying exclusively on the hammer and axe, with probably other uses as well. I think it could probably be a more time-consuming way to create boards, with the tool itself still being locked to metalworking so the player needs to reach copper in order to make and use an adze. That being said, the adze head could be cast via mold rather than requiring the anvil to forge it, in turn allowing the player to have earlier access to things like troughs for livestock and planks for building, while keeping some things(like pies and leatherworking) locked until the player acquires the anvil(need a chisel to make the quern).