For a new start I go with club which is a mace class weapon and my stone axe deals with things that are weak to slash or resistant to blunt. When I get sufficient copper and tin I make a bronze mace which gets me every thing but trolls because the vast majority of what I'm dealing with is weak or neutral to blunt damage until I get past the mountains. Trolls are weak to pierce but fire arrows work better than flint on trolls. The next weapon is a bronze atgeir for swarm control (and for trolls).

When I get enough iron in the swamp I make an iron mace and then an Iron atgeir because both of those are useful all the way to the plains. Mace for the golems and single wolf, iron atgeir for wolves plural, fire arrows for the drakes.

When I head to the plains I make a silver sword with the iron atgeir for crowd control and the bow for deathsquitos. When I get enough black metal I make a black metal sword and then a black metal atgeir.

I'm visually impaired and my motor control isn't good enough for knife use and exploring with a knife is a bit slow since it works best when you sneak which can be time consuming and I'm not quite patient enough for that.