If in the future you have time to work on this mod, would it be possible to add an option to break the tool apart with an axe or a Saw, so we coould keep the complete tool head but lose the stick as a result. I got the idea yesterday because the mod Re-smeltables has no way to break tools apart, then I was like there has to be a mod somewhere that breaks tools. Idk if its possible but thought I would just suggest it as an idea :)

ZyRail
I've done something similar to this with my pouch mod, when repairing a pouch which has items in it.
You have to set up custom crafting handling in the item's class file.

It's a bit of a hassle but since the default crafting system ignores NBT it's the only way.

Thanks Kazeoni for the comment. I don't now much coding myself. I kept it 20 because I'm trying to get my younger ones envolved in this game and the ore is sparse and hard to find at times. The balance for them is if you put in the work as a blacksmith and breakdown the tools and reforge them then you can repair them with no metal loss. You are right, it needs the tool durability scaling. But for my kids it works. They have to put in the time to make charcoal and use the hamer and the forge if not casting. I would love someone to copy this mod and tweek it with durability! As for me I don't know how yet. Thanks for downloading and trying the mod.

Great concept, and works nice as of first try but IMO heavily imbalanced.

Getting back the flat 20 bits/100 units is OP as hell. Infinite tools once you have your initial roster. Tool durability is there for a reason. Is there a way for you to add a config and durability scaling?

With my very baseline coding experience I can edit the values down to 12 bits on the recipe jsons for personal use but that's rather hacky. As for me a linear durability scale from 20 down to 12 seems the right first hunch, so gonna approximate that with ducktape methods.

Getting a durability scale with a config of perfect and almost KO-d tool values would do wonders for balancing and flexiblity.

But the general metal costs and recovery system in both vanilla and modded is a mess that's not yours alone to solve, still a great step forward. And I kinda love how this conundrum gets my gears turning. maybe VT is the push I nneded to really get into coding myself :D

I may have solved the bits not stacking.

not sure why, but your metal bits don't stack with other metal bits from breaking ingots; if you notice in your mod screenshot there's a black line at the bottom of the bits icon; it does seem to smelt normally though

thanks for updating btw :) 

you can update the version on 1.15.2 ?

Does this allow you to break down old anvils?