Minecraft wiki entry for Things_not_to_do, associated text: Using wood for wooden tools wastes wood as these tools are weak and not durable. For instance, wooden pickaxes cannot mine obsidian or any ores other than coal or nether gold ore. The player should only craft wood tools as needed to avoid wasting wood. A player starting out should make a wooden pickaxe, mine 19 stone blocks, and then they never again need the wooden pickaxe or any other wooden tool, unless the player plans to craft a boat.‌[Bedrock Edition only] The remaining stone can be used for a full set of stone tools and a furnace.
The player should never use golden tools. Even though they may be highly enchantable and mine quickly, they are the least durable of all the tiers of tools making them not worth using. Additionally, gold pickaxes cannot mine anything a wooden pickaxe cannot (including gold ore and blocks themselves), regardless of enchantments.
Stone tools are satisfactory, but they are slow and should only be used early game when iron and diamond are not easily accessible. Though cheaper than iron and diamond, a stone pickaxe can only mine iron, lapis lazuli, coal, and copper.
Iron tools are the tier of tools that most players should be using. Iron is fairly common so it isn’t hard to gather enough to make a full set of tools, and they are the third most durable of the tiers. They can mine all blocks and ores but not obsidian or ancient debris.
Diamond tools are the tool that many late-game players should have because they are the second most durable and can mine all blocks except unbreakable blocks, but diamond is rare, so the player should think twice before making tools out of them. Unless the player has a lot of diamonds in hand, it is recommended that they only make a diamond pickaxe, enchanting table, diamond sword, and diamond armor in that order before making other diamond tools.
Netherite tools and armor are the best available, but do not waste them. Netherite is crafted from diamond tools by finding the rare ancient debris in the Nether, smelting it into netherite scraps, then crafting four of these netherite scraps along with four golden ingots to create a netherite ingot. From there, combining the netherite ingot and the diamond tool in a smithing table creates a netherite tool, keeping all enchantments and durability. Netherite is faster (aside from gold), more powerful and more durable than anything else and is recommended for players in the deep late-game.