I was more or less musing before; if you're just going into the swamps the last thing you want is a battleaxe. Make it later. You need to make a bunch of poison resist and use them before you get poisoned. Maybe upgrade your bronze mace/shield; you absolutely need a mace to kill those dam blobs/oozes. Kill leeches with a bow so you can safely
go in the water.

I think the first thing I made in iron was the huntsman bow. Nice bow.