A tool's attributes, besides those inherent to the tool itself (e.g. lumber axe fells whole trees) and those added as modifiers (e.g. silky), are determined by its component tool parts. Tools crafted using Tinker's Construct require two to four individual parts.
The material of a part, no matter what the part is, will impart its material ability onto the finished tool. Exactly what this effect does depends largely on the tool, but each material will generally have the same effect for every tool.
Any tool involving multiple parts that affect the same stat will take the average of the two parts' values, except as noted.
Tool Base[]
The head, blade, pan, etc. of the tool. This part effects many aspects of a tool, but only determines 3 outright:
- The material used to repair the tool
- The hardest appropriate block the tool can break
- The melee damage of the tool (except Mattock and Battleaxe, which use the average of the two heads). Arrows and Bolts have only their ranged damage affected by the material of their tip, and otherwise do equal damage to an unarmed punch if used as stabbing weapons.
Tool parts in this category are:
- Pickaxe Head
- Hammer Head
- Shovel Head
- Excavator Head
- Axe Head (Note: This is the Tool Base of a Mattock, and fully determines the mining speed of both heads)
- Broadaxe Head (Note: The left head of a Battleaxe is considered the Tool Base. Build accordingly.)
- Chisel Head
- Pan
- Wide Board / Sign Head
- Scythe Head
- Sword Blade
- Knife Blade
- Large Sword Blade
- Arrowhead
- Bolt tip (part of the Bolt Core)
Large Plates[]
The Tool Base and the Large Plates together determine the following stats of a tool:
- The average of the durability of the Tool Base material and each Large Plate's material (if any) is the base durability used by the handle modifier.
- The mining speed of a tool.
Large plates do not determine a tool's hardness (mining level), and because of this, softer materials with better speed and/or durability are preferable, e.g. ferrous,
Handles[]
These tool parts apply their handle modifier to the total durability of a tool:
- Tool Rod (with the exception of ranged weapons: shortbows and longbows have no equivalent, while the crossbow body is effectively a tool rod)
- Tough Rod
- Tough Binding
Handles of all sorts should be chosen with both their durability multiplier and material effect in mind-- for example, a handle made of thaumium is preferable to a handle made of paper because thaumium has a durability multiplier 1.3 while paper has a durability multiplier of a mere 0.3.
Flair[]
These tool parts only apply their material modifiers and have no effect on the tool's other stats:
- Crossbar
- Wide Guard
- Hand Guard
- Binding
Because flairs impart only their material effect, the flair is the perfect place to put materials with valuable material effects but restrictive material stats, like paper or obsidian.