I would suggest investing some time into bronze tools if you are only using iron for tool crafting.
Bronze is every bit as good as iron in the early game with similar properties, but somewhat easier to produce depending on what’s available around you.
Bronze is made from the combination of copper and tin with the ratio being 3 copper to 1 tin, this will produce 4 ingots worth of bronze. Cobalt and bronze tools make a good set of pickaxes to take with you when mining, with bronze having a greater durability than iron albeit at a slightly reduced speed and cobalt giving you the ability to break level 3 rocks.
I should also note that bronze only requires a temp of 1360~k which is much easier to attain in the early days than irons 1811k, which can be harder to control on cruder crucible setups.