Currently on botanist/woodwork you gather one walnut log, it turns into 4 lumbers and then a permanent weapon/armour piece requires only 1 of those lumbers. Blacksmith is 3(?) ore for 12 nuggets and you use maybe 5 of those nuggets or more on a piece, something like that so it's a little better. But IMO given the rate at which I gather ore and logs it needs to be way more raw materials to make a weapon otherwise gathering is barely worth it.