This publish http://www.uoguide.com/Publish_-_September_22,_1999 indicates mining skill should benefit the smelting down of items, however this is currently not the case. There is, at the moment, a static 50% return of the ingots used in the construction of the item. I tested this by making a kryss (8 ingots) and smelting it down on a grandmaster miner as well as a character with 0 mining: both had a return of 4 ingots each time. This publish http://www.uoguide.com/Publish_6 indicates that locked down dye tubs should be useable by anyone regardless of status with the house; this is currently not the case. In addition I have found nothing between this one and 16 which would indicate a change on this. Player barkeepers are completely and totally unresponsive; there is no option to customize them nor do they respond to player commands. They are also, therefore, impossible to remove as well as use properly. !UPDATE! The barkeeper Ian dissapeared, I do not know why (as I stated there is no ability to really interact to tell if this is normal behavior) and I was asked to add this to the report. Hatchets currently are not breaking from lumberjacking. To be honest I could not find anything in the publishes about this but tools basic seem so basic that I am almost certain this is a bug. It was brought to my attention that the fencing special attack, paralyzing blow, is currently stuunning for 2 seconds instead of 4 (http://www.uoguide.com/Publish_5#Two-handed_Weapons). Please also take notice of this thread as well for a discussion of the balance of this ability as that was called into question. http://www.uorenaissance.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=367
Added your updated issues to the fix list. Both are clearly problems. I'm sure as we get going and more players get houses the list of items that do not work properly in a house will grow steadily since we have removed the trammelized house rules. We spent a sizable amount of time addressing this issue with house keys already. (Tubs however will be easy) Thanks for taking the time to find the related patch note also.
Hatchets/axes did not break on live. I used the same Bardiche (Don't ask why, it just looked cool) for years when I LJ'd. However, it would make sense that they SHOULD break, since it's a tool like anything else.