As far as idle games go, this one mostly lacks balance. Even if I were to leave the game running for a while, the money I bring in isn't enough to cover the upgrades that I need to purchase in order to make any kind of decent progress.
I like the mechanic of forging a new axe in order to progress, but the fact that it slows down the swings without the benefit of resetting the stat means it costs far too much to just idle.
I like the way that there is a range of values that the axe can be within, and that these values can also be upgraded. However, again the way it decreases other stats as I improve them(nice, but WAY too much) takes away from the value of increasing the stats.
TL;DR: The balance is off as you take 3 steps forward and 2 steps back with nearly every action/purchase IMO.