User blog comment:Artemis Paradox/The Official Monster Hunter Wikia Help Blog/@comment-3253026-20110617193245/@comment-969093-20110617211619

Deathprize/Poison Battleaxe is enough to get you to 6*, though from 4* onward you can start making elemental SnS. There won't be many useful elemental SnS you can make when you get to Los though, only Red Saber and if you're lucky the Frost Edge (water element), of which both have poor sharpness (though by the standards you have at that point it is pretty ok).

The first really good elemental weapons become available at 5-6*. You will be able to make Blazing Falchion, Frost Edge+, Thundertip, etc when you get to either that point or HR2 GH.

Have a look at the weapon trees on GameFAQs and base your decision on what you find there. Warning though, the guides aren't flawless. -_- I've spotted millions of errors which I don't intend on making when I start on the MHF1 segment of this wikia.

Clarification of the GFAQs terminology or ranked quests:


 * Village = Village (duh)
 * Normal = 1-3* Gathering Hall (HR1)
 * Hard = 4-5* Gathering Hall (HR1-2), yield some of the high rank items found in mh1 such as plates, dragonite ores, firestones, monster bone+, etc.
 * G-Class = 6-8* Gathering Hall (HR3-5), gives out true high rank items and even some of the G-Rank items we know from unite such as StrngGraviosWing.