The way the Butcher's Axe currently operates needs review.

As it currently behaves, it only has negatives and does not have any positives.

Using the axe, I get just as much meat as I do with my sword with Looting III on it. 

As a negative, the Axe drops only meat and no other drops like leather or wool.

It also negatvily impacts hunger.  

All of this for no gain.

The Axe should be adjusted to drop MORE meat.  My suggestion would be that it drop x2 meat of a sword with Looting III.

 

Looting 6? Seems a bit odd to have the trade off be "hungry faster" but also be like "here's a TON of food to offset hunger."

Perhaps it also has a small chance to drop EoT from the same animals (but not spawner ones ofc)? It then becomes like a weapon to hunt down passive mobs. 

Or perhaps it gets the improved drop rate, but you gain a haste 1 and power 1 effect at the cost of constant hunger. It becomes a kind of frenzy axe. You can get places faster, can get more food, but are constantly needing to eat. You'll have a benefit to keeping it in your offhand, but need to make sure you keep it supplied. 

I'm trying to have the benefit and trade off be from different aspects of the game. Any of those sound like a concept you'd be interested in?

Axes do more damage than a sword, and Looting on an axe is no longer allowed on vanilla so this is the perk — added damage.

Looting 4+ could be interesting.

Frenzy axe sounds awesome, love this idea.

 

I am just trying to wrap my head around why anyone would ever use this item. That it's a better axe than a regular axe has no value that I can see.  That I have to hit a cow 2 or 3 times with my sword to get the kill has very little value compared with the loss of the leather, which is so valuable.

It's described as giving you more meat.  To me, that means it should give you more meat than anything.  If it's just more meat than a regular axe, I just don't think anyone cares.  I can use an enchanted sword, get the same meat AND leather/wool, and not be made hungrier. Why would I use something else?

I dont mind the hunger negative, though I do agree that it's odd.  It seems to me that all the other Wilder items provide MORE of something...more wheat/carrots/etc...more heads...more wood...etc.  The Butcher's Axe does nothing like this. Adding EOTs is not enough of a reason to use this.  The leather is more valuable. Giving more meat than I could get with a sword fits thematically and would be worth the tradeoff of losing the leather.

BTW this could also be flipped to create another item...maybe called a 'Tanners Knife' or 'Skinners Blade'...a sword that only drops leather or wool and no meat, but it drops more than you can get with a Looting III sword. That would be something VERY interesting.