Foresting problems

[Andu]

One off my characters are foresting bananas with a bone knife but hes collecting rate is the same as without the bone knife. It's an old knife.

[*Wiro]

Perhaps he's really really bad at it?

[ceselb]

That might be it, yes. If you're awkward with a knife it will be almost as slow as an expert without a knife.
Think of the speed stated in game and wiki as 100%, then awkward will be 50% while expert will be 150%.
Or more fully, awkward ranges from 50-70%, novice from 71-90%, efficient from 91-110%, skillful from 111-130% and expert from 131-150%. I don't have exact numbers, but those are close and give the general idea.

Report back if this still doesn't explain what you're seeing.

[Andu]

he is efficient

[ceselb]

Are you injured then? That further slows down the gathering rate. Then finally if things weren't confusing enough already, there's a variance on each gathering amount of plus or minus 20% or so.

So, if you're not hurt, you could if unlucky have a rather lower gathering rate for a project or repeat. 495 for a bone knife * 0.90 if on the lower end of efficient * 0.8 for a low yield ~= 355g in a day. You would need to be damaged something like 20% to get all the way down to manual rates however, unless I'm missing something.

EDIT: Have you attacked, been attacked or hunted? Tiredness makes projects go slower as well.

[Andu]

Okay, I think thats the thing, he is 60 percent hurt

[ceselb]

Ahh, yes. In that case I suggest you set up small repeats and eat them as you gather, that will reduce the total time the most.