There are no mod dependencies, however there is compatability with the 'Dynamic Tooltips Library' mod, if you have the dynamic tooltips mod running with this mod then you will have dynamic tooltips for your weapon upgrades.

The mod is very large (~20mb) this is because I cannot create assets at runtime and instead have to do it at buildtime which is why the mod is so large, if the creation of assets (icons, textures and blockymodels) becomes possible at runtime then I'll shrink the mod down a lot.

I actually could shrink down the number of items in the mod using a technique similar to what dynamictooltips uses, however it would conflict with similar mods or I'd have to make dynamictooltips an actual dependency, and shrinking down the number of items would only really affect creative mode users as it would not shrink down the number of models/icons at all.

Getting started:

Start by making paper, it's recipe is in the vanilla workbench under the 'tinkering' section.
Use paper to make a tinkering table, a part builder and some blank patterns (these recipes are all found in the vanilla workbench, under either the 'crafting' or 'tinkering' section)
Convert blank patterns into patterns of your choice using the tinkering table
Use the part builder table to create stone parts with a pattern and the necessary materials
If you are content with just stone tools skip to step 10 and come back to step 6 later (though you do need iron for step 10, so it's recommended to continue with step 6), otherwise read from step 6
Get parts for your smeltery, you'll need seared basalt bricks which are created using the builders table with an input of basalt. You'll also need 3 more blocks that can all be crafted in the vanilla workbench in the tinkering section.
Create your smeltery, this is a multiblock structure, you need a floor, then you need walls to be 3 blocks high, you'll want the controller and faucet right above the floor on differing sides and the casting table will go right in front of the faucet 1 block under it. If you are struggling to make the structure try interacting with the controller, it'll tell you which tests you are failing.
Put a stone part (from step 4) into the casting table, put copper into the controller, pour copper onto your stone part, this will create a mold.
Place your mold in the casting table, pour any metal inside the mold, now you have the part.
Create a tool station, this is found in the 'crafting' section of the vanilla workbench.
Create a tool in the tool station (just place 2 parts together and click craft)
Create an upgrade station, this is found in the 'crafting' section of the vanilla workbench.
Upgrade your tools, there are a few materials that give certain upgrades, here is a list:

Paper: +Upgrade Slot (up to 5 added slots, using paper doesn’t use an upgrade slot)
Charcoal: +Fire Aspect for weapons, auto smelt for tools
Stone: ++Speed (attack speed or mining speed) --Durability
Bone: +Lifesteal
Void: +50% Chance to delete drops
Copper: ++Speed
Iron: ++Damage
Steel: +++Durability
Thorium: ++Critical Chance
Cobalt: ++Critical Damage
Adamantite: +Radius
Mithril: Unbreakable Durability
Onyxium: +++++Speed
Blood Rose: 10% hp -> 5% durability restoration

and that's pretty much it.

Weapons have been balanced so their highest dps option matches up pretty fairly against the sword's dps (eg. dagger charged spam is similar to just swinging your sword constantly).

Mithril and onyxium do have full support even though they are not currently obtainable (as far as I am aware) in exploration.

Tutorial book for the mod will be added at some point, this mod will integrate into the future ecosystem of the MnM (Magic and Machines) series of mods.

MnM Forge