So, you get bronze and are probably deciding between the bronze mace and the bronze sword which do you want for your one-handed weapon (yes, I'm assuming the bronze spear isn't as attractive).
The two weapons have pretty much identical stats: same damage, same attack speed, same stamina use, same staggering value. But the Mace has 80 knockback while the Sword has 40. The Sword does a bit more secondary attack damage, but the Mace has much higher staggering and knockback values for its secondary attack.
So, I'm basically saying that it's too obvious to craft the bronze Mace at this stage of the game. The Mace should either be slightly nerfed or the Sword slightly buffed, imo. (On top of this: you will be fighting a lot of skeletons at this stage and they're vulnerable to blunt damage, making it even more obvious to always go with the Mace).
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/valheim/comments/r6co91/mace_vs_sword_balancing/
