When it says, "you could have done better, but you can't make good out of bad."?

[LeonardoEvan]

What does that mean? Is it referring to the tool being used, the materials, or both?

So, I ended up making a shelter after I noticed that the Elk meat was saying, "stale." I decided to just roast it all and put it in a cellar. Then I think a fox ate a bunch of it, unless Grouses steal elk meat out of cellars. So, I surrounded it with the first trap listed.

So, this prompted me to look for more Elk to kill. I found some villages, and I realized that they'll trade items I make from wood. So, I'm making Javelins. I had made a bunch of boards for finishing one of the houses, and apparently my skill grew enough to make fine boards. I found that for one of the villages, they were pretty valuable . . . for about 7 or 8 of them. Now, they don't seem to want them.

So, I decided I would like to make fine javelins.

So, I cut down young spruces and make staves. Then I turn the staves into javelins. I was hoping my skill would begin to make fine javelins, but it keeps saying, "You could have done better, but you can't make good out of bad."

So, now I'm trying to figure out where the bad is. Is it the type of tree, because it doesn't seem like you can tell the difference once you cut them down. It doesn't say, "'Spruce' tree trunk," or "'Spruce' slender tree trunk." I assumed that meant that they're all the same once you cut them down. If not, what type of tree should I be cutting down for making fine staves/javelins?

Is it the quality of the trunks? Should I be cutting them down during only the daylight?

Is it the tools? This start is the one where there are two partially-done log cabins, the mother goes to the woods to perform rituals, and the father goes to the lake in the East, but they never return. I chose the winter season.
I am using the starting tools:
fine handaxe
kaumolais knife
splitting axe
broad axe
carving axe

Do I simply need to find a better tool somewhere, or maybe look for better trees to get trunks from, or is it simply a matter of just keep grinding until they finally start coming out at the fine level?

[PALU]

You can't improve a finished good to a quality level above that of the input materials (there are some exceptions with "no quality" tags in recipes). All slender trunks you cut are of decent quality, and thus you can't turn them into higher quality items (you can rarely buy fine and masterworks staves, so you can make fine and masterworks javelins out of those, if you're lucky).

There are also cases where the tools hold you back. You can't create masterworks fur and leather with a decent standard knife, but you're capped at fine. To be able to make masterworks you need either a broad knife (the preferred type for hideworking), or a fine knife of any other kind (except stone knives, but I don't think you're going to have any fine stone knife, or if it's even possible to make one).

[caethan]

FYI, this specific case (making high quality javelins) is why I removed the [noquality] tag from slender trunks when making staves in my mod.  It's a very easy change to make.